Joyful Generosity

November 6th 2022

Series:Organic Disciples

Sermon Title: Joyful Generosity…

Topic: How does joyful generosity transform me and the world?

Key Passages: Philippians 2:6-8; Matt. 6:2; Luke 19

Sermon Blurb: Jesus gave all He had and all He was for us. With divine generosity, He left glory, came to earth, took our sins, and died in our place. Now He calls His disciples to walk in His footsteps. As we give with generous and joy-filled hearts, the world can see a picture of God’s love. Joyful generosity captures the attention of a world possessed by possessions and shows them there is something (or someone) infinitely more valuable.

Sermon:

Adam / Keith- Teacher A

Welcome to week 6 of our series called Organic Disciples.

Every year we spend time focusing on things God is doing through Family Church in missions and outreach!

And this year it is not just one month but two months!!!! So even though we are in November is it STILL missions month here!!!

And if our Missions Pastor, Pastor Bob has his way, then he’s going to expect an entire quarter next year!

PAUSE

Let me quickly explain the concept for this series…

We are highlighting the various missionaries and missions we partner with both locally and all over the world.

AND we’re doing this by focusing on how followers of Jesus should be Growing in our love for God AND sharing our faith with others!

In Matthew 28 Jesus commissions His followers to GO and Make disciples or GO make more followers of Jesus!

Jesus is giving a snapshot of how to be an Organic Disciple……how to be missional in our everyday lives as followers of Jesus.

And we’re writing the same couple of points down every week because they serve as a foundation for this series.

So, write this down (again)

Organic Disciples are committed to grow in Jesus and go with Jesus.

Repeat

So, write this down as well…

Discipleship is about the adventure of becoming more like Jesus which leads to evangelism; the adventure of bringing Jesus to people.

repeat

An Organic Disciple of Jesus will naturally do both.

PAUSE

And so… here we are at week 6…. We’ve started every sermon with the exact same challenge.

We’ve been encouraged to grow in our faith

AND

We’ve been challenged to go share our faith with others.

So…………….

How are you doing at that?

Over the last 5 weeks,

How are you doing at growing in your faith?

How are you doing at sharing your faith with others?

Are you doing better than you’ve ever done before?

Are you growing in leaps and bounds?

Are you more excited to share Jesus with others?

OR

Are you still hesitating to share your faith?

Are you feeling “stuck” in your spiritual growth?

Because it’s a journey, isn’t it? It’s a process.

BUT….. are you growing as an Organic Disciple?

PAUSE

In this series, we’re exploring seven markers of spiritual maturity.

They are on the screen…

7 Indicators of an Organic Disciple of Jesus

1. Bible Engagement

2. Passionate Prayer

3. Wholehearted Worship

4. Humble Service

5. Joyful Generosity

6. Consistent Community

7. Organic Outreach

So far, we’ve looked at the first 4.

Today, we’re going to look at a fifth indicator, the fifth marker of spiritual maturity

Which is Joyful Generosity… joyful generosity.

PAUSE

So, here’s what we’ll do; you might remember our pattern for this series…

First, we’ll see how Jesus modeled joyful generosity

Then, we’ll learn how we can be more like Jesus

And then, we’ll connect the dots between discipleship and evangelism

Then we’ll see how joyful generosity reaches people for Jesus!

PAUSE

When you think about this topic – joyful generosity – what or who comes to mind?

When you hear the word joyful, what or who comes to mind?

Maybe a person who is always happy or bubbly.

Or someone who endured a lot in life but is still kind.

Or maybe you think about the feeling you get when you do something for someone else.

PAUSE

And what about generosity?

Does someone come to mind when you hear that word?

Was it something they did for you?

Was it something given to you?

Generosity is about all about giving…. it’s about living with open hands toward others.

When you add on joy to giving… that’s when something remarkable can happens!

Joyful generosity is about giving BUT giving with the heart of God…. with the intent that God has for others.

Write this down

Joyful Generosity is when I give like God gives.

*repeat

And I hope we’ll see that today.

So, with that in mind, let’s dive in and learn from Jesus.

PAUSE

Erik / Matt- Teacher B

Movement #1 – Learning from Jesus Jesus is the most joyfully generous Being in the universe!

Write this down

Jesus is the most joyfully generous Being in the universe!

Repeat

There has never been and there will never be anyone as joyfully generous as Jesus.

Jesus is the epitome of joyful generosity!!

Let me give you

5 Ways Jesus Demonstrates His Joyful Generosity

1. Jesus gave up His eternal home and moved into our world.

For all of eternity, Jesus has been in perfect communion with His Father and the Spirit.

He created the world and ruled over creation!

And when Jesus “emptied Himself” and came to earth, He chose to take up residence in a small town of a little sliver of His vast creation.

Jesus gave up His perfect home to live in our messed-up world and you NEVER see Jesus complain about it!

Jesus was JOYFUL to be with us!

PAUSE

Another way Jesus demonstrated His joyfully generous nature…

2. Jesus gave up angelic praise for human mocking.

You know, in heaven, Jesus was a big deal!!!

All the angels worshipped Him with unceasing praise.

Heavenly beings worshiped and honored Jesus 24x7!!

Yet, when Jesus chose to “empty Himself” and become like one of us, praises turned to curses.

The religious leaders constantly sought to tear Jesus down!

The earthly rulers ridiculed Jesus.

People mocked, beat, spit on, and even betrayed Jesus.

Even Jesus’ closest friends denied knowing Jesus multiple times…

Praise turned to mocking when Jesus gave up Himself for us.

And Jesus never complained……

Jesus was still joyful!

Third,

3. Jesus gave up omnipresent to become confined.

Omnipresence is an attribute of God.

It mean’s God is everywhere present, He alone can be everywhere at the same time.

Space and time cannot contain God.

Jesus was infinite and eternal.

So, Jesus, Who was once an infinite being, became confined into one human body!

The omnipresent Lord bound in human flesh as He joyfully gave Himself for us.

And Jesus never complained……

Jesus was still joyful!

PAUSE

A fourth way Jesus demonstrates His nature…

4. Jesus gave up perfect wholeness for fractured brokenness.

Peace, harmony, perfect unity… Jesus had in heaven.

When Jesus emptied Himself, and was made in human likeness, He entered a broken and fractured world.

And He didn’t play the “God-card” to keep Himself from pain or suffering… but He entered our pain and suffering as fully man and fully God.

And Jesus never complained……

Jesus was still joyful!

Fifth,

5. Jesus gave up the light of heaven for the darkness of the tomb.

Jesus left behind the glory and light of heaven when He made Himself nothing.

He walked into a dark, sin-filled world and felt the weight of infinite judgement and wrath when He took our sins upon Himself.

Jesus choose the darkness of death…

The one thing MORE people on earth fear than anything else…..

Jesus choose that for the JOY set out before him!

LONG PAUSE

When we begin to look at the realities of Jesus’ nature, we begin to see a joyfully generous Savior!

And that demands a response.

Not that we simply marvel or stand in awe of Jesus, but that we truly worship Him by learning to follow in His steps…

…Which leads us to…

Adam / Keith- Teacher A

Movement #2: The Journey of Organic Discipleship As an organic disciple of Jesus, I am committed to live joyfully generous.

Write this down

As an organic disciple of Jesus, I am committed to live joyfully generous.

Jesus was the model of infinite generosity, and then He called His followers to generous lives.

In Matthew 6:2, “When you give to the needy…”

In Matthew 6:2, Jesus says, “When you give to the needy…”

… and then He teaches about the heart of giving…read it later today…..

Jesus expects His followers to be generous. He doesn’t say IF he says WHEN…..

PAUSE

In Luke 19, is a story about a man named Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus was a Jewish tax collector… which wasn’t a popular job to have in those times because tax collectors were the middleman between the common Jew and the oppressive Roman government.

So, Zacchaeus was the face of the IRS…

And the story goes that Jesus has supper with Zacchaeus and during that discussion, Zacchaeus commits to give half of his possessions to the poor and repay anyone whom he has cheated.

And Jesus says in Luke 19:9-10 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

PAUSE

This is a huge, momentous statement and great celebration… AND it was ALL because Zacchaeus allowed the presence of Jesus to soften his heart so that he became generous.

Zacchaeus was all about the bottom line, building his bank account, ensuring his financial security, and he even cheated people out of their money…

BUT!!!!! ONE moment in the presence of Jesus changed everything!!!!!

Zacchaeus loosened his grip on the stuff of this world and took on a quality of Christ-likeness.

And heaven rejoices and God delights when we are generous.

PAUSE

You know Jesus talked a lot about money.

Jesus warns against hoarding resources in Luke 12.

Jesus warns against letting money become your master in Matthew 6.

Jesus warns against loving money in 1 Timothy 6.

Jesus warns against debt in Romans 13.

And the reason Jesus talked so much about money is because Jesus knows how the desire for earthly security and gains can really impact our how we live.

PAUSE

So, how can we live inside God’s promises and protection when it comes to generosity?

How do we do this? Let me give you 5 things quickly…

First,

Commit to tithe.

Repeat

Commit to give back to God a small portion of that which He has given you.

Tithe means one-tenth, 10%.

The Bible makes a promise that if you joyfully give God 10% of your increase, then God will abundantly provide everything you need.

PAUSE

Second,

Pay attention to the nudging of the Holy Spirit.

repeat

God is often nudging us on the inside to meet the needs of others… and we have to pay attention to those nudging, those inklings or impressions.

PAUSE

Third,

Think eternally about resources.

repeat

As you invest your time, talent, and treasures, be sure a portion of that investment is always in heavenly treasures and things that will last forever.

PAUSE

Fourth,

Check the attitude of my heart.

repeat

Ask yourself, “what do I really love”?

Where do I invest the most of my time, talent, and resources?

And make sure you aren’t falling in love with things more than God, or with earthly stuff more than eternal stuff.

PAUSE

We could go on and on with advice here but let me just give one more.

A fifth way you and I can be joyfully generous is to…

Ask God to help nurture contentment in me.

Repeat

Work on saying things like

“I have enough”,

“I am satisfied”,

“God has given me everything I need”,

“I am blessed”.

PAUSE

I want to close with one more insight on becoming a joyfully generous…….

Erik/ Matt- Teacher B

Movement #3 – How Joyful Generosity Reveals God’s heart. When I am joyfully generous, I am part of changing the world.

Write this down

When I am joyfully generous, I am part of changing the world.

Repeat

As followers of Jesus….

Jesus Who gave up everything for you and me…

We need to learn how to give up something for others.

We need to learn how to share.

And share sacrificially at times.

It’s funny how we as parents, adults, teachers…especially of little kids, how we often try to teach kids how to share.

And then we become adults, but we don’t do very good at sharing.

PAUSE

Pastor Adam has often said, Jesus’ Church ought to be the most generous organization on planet earth.

Jesus’ followers must learn what sharing, even sacrificial sharing, really looks like.

Let me share with you about how we have help some other ministries do this….

Heart Reach Pregnancy Center in Wasilla, Alaska because they demonstrate this really well.

They are not only helping to save babies but are doing a great job of providing parenting classes for young adults who maybe have missed out on good role modeling by their own parents.

At Christmas they have a FREE store where parents can come “shopping” with dignity to be able to provide something nice for their children at Christmas.

They also feed give over 1000 Christmas meals to families!

Down in Kentucky is a little ministry called Big Creek Mission and in August we sent a group to serve them.

We were we able to build out a café for them to use for FREE to help them serve 780 families every month get food from the pantry!

That café will also help students get their GED!

We are NOT just providing a place where people could get a cup of coffee, maybe some sweet tea or lemonade……

But a place a safe place that people from the community could come enjoy a good meal. FREE of charge.

And we get to be a part of all of this goodness!!!!!

Here’s the neat thing.

When you and I share, when we give our time, talent, and treasure for God and others… We experience so much Joy!

We have an awesome serving culture here at Family Church… and you all often remind us of the joy that comes in serving and sharing with others.

We also have a strong giving culture… giving time, talents, and treasures.

As a pastor, I know that if there is a legitimate need that crops up… there are certain people who live super generously that I can go to and you will meet the need… and that is incredible!

PAUSE

And when we are joyfully generous, it opens doors to sharing Jesus.

When we share our resources, we share Jesus.

When we share through our Auctionless Auction we get to share both joy and Jesus!

You see what I did there!!!

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve shared with you the great things we can joyfully participate in all around the world.

So that we can share Jesus with as many people as possible.

Your Auctionless Auction Books includes information on how :

We’d like to provide 2,000 Bibles to people around the world.

How we’d like to fill the medical clinic buildings in two rural Kenyan villages with all the equipment needed to do proper diagnostic work.

How we’d like to purchase a well rig which will help open doors into the Amazon Jungle that have been closed for decades.

How we’d like to teach our middle school and high school students how to develop a Christian worldview by providing scholarships to be a part of short-term mission and learning opportunities.

That’s it (Smile Big)

PAUSE

You’ll find all the information you need in the booklet and just like every week before – we’d like to ask you to prayerfully consider being joyfully generous with one, two, or all four of these requests.

In your Auctionless Auction Book you will see an Envelope. If you’ve used your envelope already, there are more envelopes out by the lighthouse.

These envelopes all accept cash, checks, and even allow you to enter your debit or credit card information, fill it as full as you can, check the box that God lays on your heart and place the envelope in the Large Lighthouse in the Lobby.

And remember If you use that envelope this weekend to help us buy we’ll give you a brand new envelope to use next week so that you can continue to play along with all of our great Auctionless Auction items throughout the next couple of weeks.

So, here’s our final point and today’s

Life Application: When I share my resources, I share Jesus. What is one way I can live joyfully generous this week? Write it down and share with someone who can hold you accountable.

Pray

Offering