Endeavor 3: A Generous Endeavor

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: Ps. 112:1-9

N: Laser pointer, bookmark

Welcome

Good morning, I’m Bill Connors and I’d like to welcome you to Family Worship with Eastern Hills Baptist Church. Whether you’re in the room or online, we rejoice in the opportunity that we have to come together to worship the Lord and spend time in Scripture together. If you’re visiting in the room with our church family this morning, I’d like to thank you for being here, and I’m confident that you’ve already found the Eastern Hills family to be a friendly, warm group of people who love each other and love the Lord. I personally would like the opportunity to greet you this morning or to send you a note, so if you could please grab the communication card that’s in the back of the pew in front of you and fill that out during the service, I would appreciate it. You can then either drop it one of the offering plates at the end of service, or you can bring it down front to me after service is over, and I have a gift that I’d like to give to you: an Eastern Hills mug. If you’d rather fill out a digital card, you can text WELCOME to 5053392004 and you’ll get a link back to our digital communication card.

If you’re visiting online, I pray that our stream has been and continue to be a blessing to you. You can text that same number 5053392004 and fill out the digital communication card as well.

Again, thanks for being a part of Family Worship this morning.

Announcements

Budget Discussion tonight at 5:30 in Sanctuary

MNM ($13,506) last day for this offering

Endeavor Stuff:

Wednesday Prayer times 12-1 in the sanctuary

Sweet Extra Hour of Prayer 5:30 pm next Sunday 11/6 in Miller Hall

Opening

We are on our third of five weeks in our ENDEAVOR series, and we are on a discipleship journey to consider the plans that the Lord has for the future of Eastern Hills Baptist Church, our mission and purpose as a church, and to consider giving to the upkeep and upgrade of our building so that it might continue to support the church well into that future. We’re looking at the life of Old Testament Joseph for this journey together. So far, we’ve considered the God-sized nature of Joseph’s endeavor and ours: that God prepares God-sized things for His people and His people for God-sized things, but that He ultimately does the work through His people, so He gets the glory. Then last week, we saw the generational reality of our endeavor: that each generation inherits and passes on an endeavor, and that each generation is responsible for their faithfulness to God in that endeavor during their time. This morning, we will reflect on the generosity of Joseph during his time in Egypt, and what that meant for Israel in the future, as well as consider how God can use our generosity now for His future purposes.

This morning, we’re going to set up the topic of generosity and its connection to a faithful walk with the Lord using the first 9 verses of Psalm 112

Psalm 112:1–9 CSB

1 Hallelujah! Happy is the person who fears the Lord, taking great delight in his commands. 2 His descendants will be powerful in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. 4 Light shines in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, compassionate, and righteous. 5 Good will come to the one who lends generously and conducts his business fairly. 6 He will never be shaken. The righteous one will be remembered forever. 7 He will not fear bad news; his heart is confident, trusting in the Lord. 8 His heart is assured; he will not fear. In the end he will look in triumph on his foes. 9 He distributes freely to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted in honor.

PRAYER (FBC Rio Rancho, Si Budagher)

Given how long I’ve been a part of this church family, there are many positive things that I could say about it. Near the top of that list would be the word “generous.” And honestly, I don’t think that I could even start a reasonable list of all the ways that I have seen and experienced the God-prompted generosity of this group of people. It’s honestly too many for me to do justice to attempting to list them well, so I’ll list just one specific instance from my own ministry:

When I was leading the student ministry, we went on our first community service summer missions trip in 2008. We didn’t decide that we were doing the trip until spring of that year when I received a mailing for one in CO, so we didn’t have it in the budget (poor planning on my part on that one). We prayed about it, really felt that God was in it, and we made plans to go. We knew we needed to raise about $4,000 to be able to get us registered, pay for vehicle rentals and travel, and purchase construction supplies. We also needed adults to sponsor this trip, which was going to be outside of our comfort zones, and we needed students to make time to give a week of muscle-hurting, sweat-producing work in late July. We did fund raisers, and this church provided the funds we needed to go in plenty of time. We had several adults volunteer to come on the trip. We had I think 18 students commit to giving their time. We had the opportunity to share the Gospel, to have great biblical conversations on our worksites, and to serve a community in very real, practical ways. My crew repaired a porch for an older widow who couldn’t afford to have it fixed, and we fixed some drywall and repainted the entire interior of her house in that week. Here’s a picture of the finished work. We built those steps and railing around the porch. I had never really done anything like that before.

The original plan was that we would take a trip like that every other year. By the time that week was over, the adults and students both declared that we would be taking a trip like that every year, even if I didn’t go with them. And that’s exactly what happened. The ministry, the challenge, the blessing, the growth that took place that week shifted something in our student ministry.

I know that it was only a week. But I know this as well: it took God’s people at Eastern Hills all pulling together with our focus on Him to make that first trip a reality. The truth is that different people needed to be generous in different ways in order to make that trip work. Some gave of their time. Some gave of their talents. Some gave of their treasure.

Back in July of this year, I preached on stewardship during our series on our Statement of Belief, and in that message I touched on these three aspects of stewardship: time, talent, and treasure, as we looked at the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. This morning, we will see these same three aspects in Joseph’s life as well. You could easily apply what we read in Psalm 112 to Joseph.

A truly biblical view of stewardship is the realization that all we are and all we have is God’s, and we are given the blessing of managing and using what He owns. Thus, God has the absolute right to call us to be generous with what belongs to Him. We are caretakers, stewards. Joseph was literally a steward in Egypt: first over Potiphar’s house, then over the prison he was in, and finally over the resources of all Egypt under Pharaoh. And it is in each of these stories in the narrative that we will see these three aspects of generosity in Joseph’s life. Our first look comes from the home of Potiphar:

1: Generous with time

Remember that Joseph’s brothers back in Canaan hated him because of the special relationship that he had with their father Jacob, and because of the dreams that Joseph had that showed them bowing down to him as if he were ruling over them. They saw him coming from a distance, made a plan, beat him up, threw him in a water holding pit, sold him to some traveling slave traders, and convinced Jacob that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. We pick up the narrative of Joseph right after that:

Genesis 39:1–6a (CSB)

1 Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, 4 Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority. 5 From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph. The Lord’s blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. 6 He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

I don’t know about you, but if I had been beaten and sold into slavery by my brothers, I seriously doubt that I would be particularly motivated to give quality time to the person who bought me at the end of the line. I certainly wouldn’t be motivated to be successful at my work. But Joseph was a better man than I.

Notice that Joseph became a successful man. This took time. We know that Joseph was about 17 when he was sold into slavery (Gen 37:2). We know that he was 30 when he entered Pharaoh’s service (Gen 41:46). We know that two years passed between his interpretations of the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker and his meeting with Pharaoh (Gen 41:1). So even if we split the 11 remaining years between the his service to Potiphar and his time in prison before the cupbearer and baker show up (this is highly unlikely… his time with Potiphar is almost certainly longer), that’s 5 1/2 years he spent in service at Potiphar’s house.

We don’t read about Joseph being frustrated or reluctant or angry. Instead, we see that he engaged in the work that he was given for the time that he was given it. He took it as a learning opportunity, a way for him to both make the best use of the time and to pass the time well in captivity. He was faithful in what God had given him to do for the time that he was there, and in fact, that engagement in the time God had given him certainly ended up being foundational to the success he would have later on. Joseph didn’t waste his time.

A big part of our ENDEAVOR is the investment that we are being called to make with our time. It’s not necessarily time here at the building (but it might include that). It’s really more about investing time in others: in our neighbors and in each other. It’s really about faithfulness in seeing ourselves as God’s, and using our time for His Kingdom purposes.

Slavery is nearly always a touchy subject, but the Bible doesn’t shy away from the topic. Joseph was a slave in the context of our text in Genesis 39. Paul knew that sometimes slaves became Christians, and sometimes Christians became slaves in the Roman empire. So he could give them spiritual instruction on how to live as slaves in such a way as to honor God, as he wrote to the church at Colosse:

Colossians 3:22–24 CSB

22 Slaves, obey your human masters in everything. Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, 24 knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.

Paul here suggests that believing slaves should work diligently at all times because of their reverence for God, and that everything that they did should be done as if it were for the Lord, not for people… because it’s really Christ that they serve in all of their work.

Now, we might look at this and say, “Bill, this doesn’t apply to us. We aren’t slaves.” And from a human perspective, you are correct, and we are thankful to the Lord for that. However, we most certainly are slaves, bondservants, to God Himself. Don’t we fall into the same category through his statement, “You serve the Lord Christ.”? And if God gave those slaves who had human masters the instruction to obey them and to generously give of their time and energy to them, then shouldn’t we be willing to give God our time as well?

We have the opportunity all around us to be generous with our time, to give of ourselves to our neighbors, coworkers, acquaintances, friends, families, and church. Are we willing to give our time away for the benefit and blessing of others?

2: Generous with talents

As I mentioned, Joseph grew in his abilities while he was at Potiphar’s house, and in the next snippet that we see of his life, we find that Joseph is using his newfound skill in an unlikely place: a prison:

Genesis 39:21–23 CSB

21 But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden. 22 The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there. 23 The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful.

Again, if I were wrongly imprisoned, would I have gone into that prison and put my talents to work for the warden to be a blessing to him? I would hope so, but I honestly doubt it. Again, I’d likely be weighed down with frustration and anger over my lot in life. But not Joseph.

Joseph took the things that he had learned and the gifts that he had cultivated at Potiphar’s house and continued his faithful approach to using his time. But now, he was using the skills and talents that he had acquired during that time, and used them to manage not a household, but a prison. And Joseph’s God-given talents were not wasted there, because the warden didn’t have to worry for a moment about anything that was under Joseph’s authority. This is a responsible use of his talents.

We each have talents and service gifts that we can use for the good of the ministry and the benefit of others. None of us are called into a permanent consumerism in the church. None of us are called to just show up every Sunday, sit in the pew, and then go about our week for ourselves alone. We’re all soldiers in a spiritual battle, gifted with tools for the war. We’re all ambassadors representing our true Kingdom, and all that we say and do reflect on that Kingdom to the world. We’re all bondservants of our Almighty Master, and we belong to Him completely. Sure, there might be times when it is necessary to step back and take a moment of respite to replenish our strength while others carry on the work, but our calling is to be constantly generous with our talents and gifts as God has seen fit to give them to us. In his first epistle to the church, Peter approached it this way:

1 Peter 4:10–11 CSB

10 Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

We have these gifts not so that we are glorified and lifted up, but so that others are served, hear the Word of God, and receive the grace of God, so that God is glorified through Jesus Christ living in and through us.

An opportunity that all of us have to fulfill this calling is sharing the message of the Gospel with those we have the opportunity to share with: that Jesus, the Son of God, laid down His perfect life in taking the punishment that we deserve because of our sin. That sin separates us from God, who loves us. And Jesus defeated death in our place by rising from the grave. If we believe the Gospel, surrendering our lives to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, turning away from our sins, we will be saved and will have eternal life.

We are to be generous with the Gospel, and we are on this endeavor so that we as a church will move in that direction together, generously using the talents, skills, and gifts that God has given us both here with the family and in our workplaces and neighborhoods, and that this building will continue to support us in this work as we move into that future. Which takes us to our third point:

3: Generous with treasures

God took Joseph’s time and talents and brought them together at the right place and right time in Egypt. God gifted him with the ability to interpret dreams in His name, first for the cupbearer and baker, and then two years later, for Pharaoh himself. When Pharaoh’s dreams of the cows and the heads of grain made him unsettled, Joseph was called from the prison to explain the meaning of them: seven years of plenty were coming, followed by seven years of terrible famine. We won’t read this now, but you can read about this in Genesis 41 if you haven’t read this part of the narrative before. So Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of all of Egypt during the years of plenty, in order to prepare for the years of famine. Joseph’s stewardship of the wealth of Egypt during the years of plenty was so responsible that the Scripture says that “all nations” were able to come to Egypt for food during the famine, including Israel.

And this put Joseph in a position of being able to be exceedingly generous with his treasure to his family, even though his brothers had sold him into slavery. He saw it as God’s provision for saving lives, and was willing to use the material provision that he had been given to bless his family.

Genesis 45:9–13 CSB

9 “Return quickly to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: “God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay. 10 You can settle in the land of Goshen and be near me—you, your children, and your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and all you have. 11 There I will sustain you, for there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise, you, your household, and everything you have will become destitute.” ’ 12 Look! Your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin can see that I’m the one speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all my glory in Egypt and about all you have seen. And bring my father here quickly.”

Genesis 47:11–12 CSB

11 Then Joseph settled his father and brothers in the land of Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 12 And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s family with food for their dependents.

Joseph was generous with his time and talents, and then God gave him the opportunity to be generous with vast treasure as well. I’m not saying that this is how it will work for all of us. We all are given different positions in life, and each of us have differing levels of resource that we are placed as stewards over. I don’t think any of us are in charge of the wealth of a nation like Joseph was. However, the point isn’t the amount of the resources that we have in our care, but our heart toward those resources.

Generosity with our treasures is only secondarily a question of our pocketbooks. It is first a question of our faith in our treasure to sustain us and our willingness to see ourselves as God’s managers or stewards of that treasure.

Paul would write to the church at Corinth about generosity as a matter of the heart in 2 Corinthians chapter 9:

2 Corinthians 9:6–11 CSB

6 The point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. 9 As it is written: He distributed freely; he gave to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. 10 Now the one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will also provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.

This passage quotes Psalm 112, which we started with this morning. We reap not what we sow, but how we sow: it’s not the amount of what we give, but the heart with which we give based on the resources at our disposal. What kind of givers are we going to be? Sad givers, who give “reluctantly?” Mad givers, who have to give “out of compulsion?” Or glad givers who are “cheerful?” This doesn’t say that God loves giving. It says that God loves a cheerful giver. The cheerful giver’s heart is in the right place: trusting that God Himself is able to and will provide for what is necessary in that person’s life, so that that person may grow in righteousness and so that God will get the glory through that generosity.

The gift that Paul was asking for was going to take the whole church giving to see it come to pass. And the reality is that the context for this from Paul is an intentional gift: one that required planning to give, which is why Paul was writing for it in advance (see verse 5 of this chapter). When we plan to give, when we are intentional about it, it might surprise us how much we can give.

Giving exercise

To this end, I want to show you something. This is also on the front of the Informer this morning. This is one family’s plan for how they are going to plan for giving to the ENDEAVOR campaign over the next four years.

Lead through giving exercise. These aren’t the only categories for change, so this is just a framework. Some other ideas are: putting off a major purchase for a year or more if you can; committing any unexpected income to the ENDEAVOR campaign during the pledge period; or selling an extra asset if you have it for the benefit of the campaign.

This family is planning on making some sacrifices of normal things in life that they enjoy because they want to cheerfully give for the support of the church. They’re making cuts with the intent of giving those resources for the purposes of God in this church. Notice how much difference a little change in prioritization can make over time.

This exercise isn’t to coerce anyone. It’s not to make anyone feel guilty or pressured. It’s just to show how it’s possible to make a much larger difference than we think we are able to, if we will cheerfully steward the resources that God has given to us.

I give you this exercise this morning so that you can first, pray about it. What would God have you give? How could you make that gift a reality? Second, work through it: as a family or on your own, depending on your context. If you have children, involve them in the process. You might be surprised at the creative ideas your children might have. If you have older students, maybe work through this with them, helping them to find ways to give to ENDEAVOR on their own. Then third, plan for our Commitment Sunday. We will all as a church be making our commitments on Sunday, November 13, in two weeks. Take the next two weeks and prepare for that Sunday.

Before we close this morning, I want to make one additional point of application for us. That point is to look at the results of Godly generosity.

Additional Application: Results

Joseph modeled generosity for us. He was generous with his time while in Potiphar’s house. He was generous with his talents and gifts while in the prison. And he was generous with the material treasure that he was in charge of for Pharaoh. If we take a step back and look at the results of his generosity, we see incredible results. We do see them in Joseph’s life, as he matured and grew and was entrusted with more and more to be generous with, but the Scriptures make a point to tell us over and over about how other people were blessed by Joseph’s generosity with his time, his talents, and his treasure. Potiphar was greatly blessed, according to Genesis 39:5. The prison warden was blessed, according to Genesis 39:23. Egypt was blessed with having food when the famine struck according to Genesis 41:53. Other nations were blessed because they could come to Egypt for grain according to Genesis 41:57. Joseph’s family was blessed, because Joseph could provide for them because of how God has blessed his generosity.

We believe that as we are faithful to God’s call on the life of this church, and as we give of our time, our talents, and our treasures for His glory, then there is going to be a harvest of that faithfulness. We might not see it personally, because as we saw last week: our endeavor is a generational one. However, we can trust that God will provide a harvest of glory to His name because of the faithfulness of His people and their obedient response to Him. Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth continued:

2 Corinthians 9:12–15 CSB

12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the proof provided by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedient confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone. 14 And as they pray on your behalf, they will have deep affection for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

The generosity of the Corinthians was tied to their confession of the Gospel, and their obedience led to the glory of God. This is what we have to look forward to: not that God would make us materially rich, but that God will cause our generosity to overflow for His greatness as we are faithful to give our time, our talents, and our treasures for His Kingdom purposes for the name of Christ, in the power of His Spirit, so that both we and others would give thanks to Him for how He works.

Closing

Church, let us be committed to continuing to pray for this ENDEAVOR that God has set us on. How will He call us to generosity, and how will He use that generous obedience for the benefit of His Kingdom and the blessing of those around us? During this time of invitation, let us surrender ourselves to wanting nothing but His will in our lives and in the life of this church family. If you need to pray with one of us, we will be here for you to do so, or you can come and pray at the steps if you need to as well.

I have shared this morning what God has done for us in Christ that should move us toward generosity in our time, talents, and treasures, but I’m certain that there are those among us this morning, whether online or in the room, who have never surrendered their lives to God through faith in Christ. This is the first and most important thing. God loves you and wants to be in that relationship with you. He wants to walk with you and guide your life. He wants your life to point to Him and His greatness as people experience His grace through your changed life. Surrender to Christ as Lord and Savior, giving up going your own way, believing that He died and rose again for your forgiveness. And if that’s you, please come and share that with one of us this morning so we can celebrate as a church with you. If you’re online, please send me an email so that we can help you as you start this new journey of faith. If you have questions about faith or salvation, please let me know that as well.

If you believe that Eastern Hills is a church family where God can help you to grow, serve, and thrive, and you want to talk about becoming a formal member, please come and let me know. We’ll set an appointment to sit down and share our testimonies, talk through our Statement of Belief, and answer any questions that you might have about Eastern Hills.

You can also use this time of invitation to give tithes and offerings online or on our app. If you would rather give in person this morning, you can use the plates by the doors as you leave the room after our benediction.

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Ps. 120 today, start Ruth tomorrow, then on to 1 & 2 Chronicles)

No Pastor’s Bible Study for a few weeks due to other things

Prayer Meeting

Endeavor giveaway bookmarks

Instructions for guests

Benediction

1 Timothy 4:10 CSB

10 For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Don’t forget our Budget Discussion Meeting tonight at 5:30 here in the sanctuary. We will not be voting on anything, but this will be the only discussion opportunity for the entire budget. God bless you all, and go and be generous this week.