True Faith 3: Service and Giving

SLIDE 1 - As I go up.

An expert in the Jewish law once asked Jesus

“Teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus asked the man, knowing he was an expert in the Hebrew scriptures;

“What is written in the law, how do you read it?”

And the man, likely feeling quite proud of himself, as he knew the correct answer replied,

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”

The man was quoting from Deuteronomy 6 and Leviticus 19, two key laws in the Old Testament. Two laws that I would argue are still key for us as modern Christians today. And I don’t think that is just my opinion, I think Jesus makes that clear in his response.

“You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.”

Love God with all your hear, all your soul, all your strength, and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself and you will live; remember the original question the man asked, how do I inherit eternal life, we can put 2 and 2 together - Jesus response, you will live, most likely means eternally.

We are in the middle of a series on spiritual disciplines. Which we defined as SLIDE 2

(Spiritual disciplines are) Biblical practices that put us in a position to experience God—leading to a greater maturity and affection for Him.

Today we are going to be looking at the Spiritual Disciplines of service and giving. How does serving God and serving others put us in a position to experience God in way that leads to a great spiritual maturity and love of God? How does giving put us in a place to experience God in way that leads to a great spiritual maturity and love of Him?

If we return to that story of the expert in the Jewish law’s interaction with Jesus we find it didn’t end with Jesus response, the man didn’t hear Jesus say

“You have answered correctly, do this and you will live.”

And run off into the sunset jumping with joy loving God and others. Rather Luke continues, this is Luke 10:29

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Isn’t that interesting. Now, I don’t know if Jesus explained the man’s motive, I don’t know if the way he asked the question revealed the man’s motive, I don’t know if the witnesses Luke interviewed went into that at all, but we know that Luke recorded the man’s motive as wanting to justify himself. Not, wanting to know how to better serve God and others… but seeking a sense of justification… ‘and who is my neighbor?’

Jesus answers the question by telling a story. We have come to call this story The Parable of the Good Samaritan. SLIDE 3

30 Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. SLIDE 4 33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. 34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’

Having told the Story Jesus asks the man who was the neighbor to the beaten person, and the expert rightly responds

The one who showed mercy to him.

Jesus then drops the mic by saying

Go and do the same.

Now we need to understand, Jesus IS NOT saying that it is by loving God and others that we get eternal life, while if we read this passage alone without the rest of scripture would could make that mistake. Which is why it is crucial we always take the whole of scripture into account when seeking to understand scripture. Rather Jesus is saying, if you have embraced and are following God. If The Spirit is living inside of you. If you truly are a disciple of Jesus Christ - you should want to love God and love others. That doesn’t mean you will always do it flawlessly, but you should long to do it, and long to do it better and better.

We looked at this passage two weeks ago, but lets refresh ourselves once again and look at SLIDE 5 Ephesians 2:8-10

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

We are saved NOT by our works, but by faith, by God’s gift. We cannot boast in our salvation because we didn’t earn it, we didn’t do anything to claim it - we were given it BY GOD! But then, verse 10 is clear, we were created in Christ Jesus for good works… works which God as already prepared for us. Works which we, having been saved, are expected to do.

James 2 touches on this as well SLIDE 6

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? SLIDE 7 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder. 20 Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?

I am going to try my best to stay off my soapbox here… but this is why I hate when I see Christians who write a Bible verse on the tip line at a restaurant… like these people are usually making under minimum wage, if you’re going to give them a verse, give them a tip as well

you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it....

Show your faith WITH works,

faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. - faith without works is useless!

Now, again, James is not saying our works save us, rather he is saying our works are proof that our faith is alive. As I was thinking about this this week the image of fire came to mind. Imagine a fire without warmth. Imagine a fire that offers no heat a cold fire. Now I’ll admit… and I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this… I had to google ‘can a fire be cold… can a fire not give off heat...’ I’m a pastor not a scientist okay! But you may be able to imagine that… but you will never be able to experience it. Because a fire is by definition a chemical reaction in which energy reacts with oxygen creating a flame whose natural byproduct is heat! You cannot have a flame without heat. Faith is a flame. Works are the heat.

So what works should our faith produce? Jesus told his disciples in John 13 that is is our love for one another that will reveal to the world we are His disciples. So what does that love look like?

Lets highlight 2 ways that love should result in works. SLIDE 8

First: We should be meeting people’s true physical needs. In the parable of the good Samaritan the one who helped offered transportation to an in, medical care, financial assistance, up to the man’s point of health. He didn’t enable the man entirely, he didn’t create a trust fund to make the man’s life easy from here on out, he simply provided for the man’s physical needs in the moment. There is another passage, however, another parable we call the sheep and the goats, this is found in Matthew 25:31-46. I won’t read the full passage today, but you can take note of that and read it this week if you’d like, again that is Matthew 25:31-46.

In this parable Jesus tells of 2 groups. Group A, the sheep, and group B, the goats. To the sheep God will say, SLIDE 9

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

While to the goats he will say SLIDE 10

41 “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!”

To the sheep they enter heaven, paradise, glory. To the goats they enter hell, punishment, sorrow. Bot the sheep and the goats in this story think they deserve heaven, they think they dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s, but Jesus says no. Some made it others did not. And what was the bar some got over and others fell under? SLIDE 11

35 “ ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’

The Sheep say when did we do this, we’d remember feeding, watering, housing, clothing, tending, and visiting Jesus, God! We don’t recall doing that for you! The Goats meanwhile thinking if we heard God was in that scenario we would have jumped to help! When did we fail you! To which Jesus responds to both. SLIDE 12

45 “Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

It isn’t their works that saved them. It was their faith, but if the goats had a true faith… they too would have found themselves doing these things. If their faith was aflame, their works would have been hot. Not cold. In Revelation 3:15-16 John records the words of Jesus,

15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.”

Don’t be a lukewarm Christian - be an on fire disciple of Jesus Christ! Now, don’t serve others to your own detriment. If you have ever been on an airplane and actually paid attention to the safety briefing… (pause) They tell you in the case of an emergency if oxygen masks drop from the cieling, first put on your mask, then help the person, your child, your grandparent, next to you. If you don’t put yours on first you may pass out before you get either on. Likewise, don’t think you deserve the best of everything… If your options are buy a new Lexus or buy a used toyota and help someone survive - buy the toyota and help the other person survive! Now to some God has blessed us in a way that you can have the Lexus and help others… if that’s the case Awesome! Do that - but never neglect others for your own gain. So again, way 1: meet people’s felt needs.

Way 2: SLIDE 13 meet people’s spiritual needs. People are either A) sinners in need of a savior or B) Christians in need of maturity. The first group needs us to common along side and show them Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 7.

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.”

To those in need of a savior let us show them the narrow road, the road few find. While to the Christians around us let us provide opportunities for spiritual growth. Let of find ways to encourage and equip one another. In Proverbs 27 it says

17 Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens another.

May we be iron for one another, sharpening one another’s resolve, shaving off our sins and temptations, encouraging one another more and more in fellowship and community.

We need to be able to Identify those around us and know which of these groups they fall into and identify ways we can I help them. In some cases - you may be able to help them by letting them help you, Richard Foster calls this the service of being served. Someone next step in growth may be in discipling another younger Christian, maybe your act of service is saying, disciple me! And then doing as they ask and teach as they train you! Perhaps your service is telling that person you know who doesn’t yet know Jesus about Him. Perhaps it is helping them know they are a sinner, offering a firm rebuke. This can be to another Christian as well, perhaps you see a Christian brother or sister doing something you know is a sin, you can serve them by rebuking them and helping correct them, bringing them back to righteousness. Not all needs are physical! Now… some of you are acting like the Jewish expert in the law from the beginning of the sermon thinking... which of these do I need to do first… Physical needs or spiritual… you’re asking the wrong question, it should be who do I need to serve physically and who do I need to serve spiritually. Some people need to eat before they will see Jesus, others need Jesus before anything else - we need to learn to identify who is who and serve them accordingly.

I could spend hours on this topic of service, but let’s shift our attention to the second side of this coin, that of giving.

What should the Christians relationship be with money, specifically with the concept of tithing and giving be? Let me first to dismiss two misconceptions. SLIDE 14

The first misconception - Christians are commanded to give 10%. The Old Testament holds 10% as a standard this is seen in multiple places including Genesis 14, Malachi 3 and many others. But if you actually calculate all the offerings mentioned in the Old Testament a net giving of 23% is more accurate especially once you include the costs of sacrifices. But no, the New Testament does not hold 10% up as what we should give - it is a great goal, or for some a great starting place, not a command. So giving more or less is not a sin. SLIDE 15

The Second misconception; tithes and offerings are an Old Testament practice Christians are fee of entirely. Many pastors will try and defeat this misconception by citing a single statistic, that Jesus taught about finances more than any other topic, in fact 1 in every 7 verses in the 4 Gospels is about money! And while that is kind of accurate it also isn’t. For example; Jesus tells a parable about a widows lost coin and her desire to find it, followed by her celebration when she does. That parable mentions coin 3 times in 3 verses - that’s a 100% coin count! But that parable is not about money at all - when read in the context of the surrounding verses, the parable it is about God’s desire for us to be a part of the kingdom of God! It is between the parable of the lost sheep and the prodigal son - does this get us off the hook than… is tithing and offering an antiquated practice, an ancient tradition we can do away with? NO! While Jesus may not predominately teach about money… he does teach about it! Jesus teaches we should pay taxes. Jesus teaches we should give to God. Jesus teaches that it is how we give not how much we give. Jesus does teach about money, it just isn’t his main focus. But no, Christians are not off the hook, Jesus still teaches and the New Testament still expects us to give.

So again, I ask, what should the Christians relationship be with money, specifically with the concept of tithing and giving be? We will look at two final passages, so if you want to follow along turn to Mark 12, then we will be in 2 Corinthians 9 in a bit, but we will start with Mark 12 verses 41 through 44. This takes place while Jesus and His disciples are at the temple in Jerusalem. Earlier in this chapter some of the Pharisees tested Jesus asking him if they should pay taxes to Caeser, the Roman empire, the kingdom that controls them yet which they do not belong to - essentially a pre Revolutionary war America-Britain relationship and Jesus teaches them to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar and give to God the things that are God’s - pay your taxes, and tithe to the temple. Some time passes, days weeks, minutes, we don’t know, but Jesus is now watching people in the temple offer their tithes, he sees the rich offering extravagant amounts, he sees the middle class dropping in their tenth, then he sees a poor widow, verse 41. SLIDE 16

41 Sitting across from the temple treasury, he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich people were putting in large sums. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. 43 Summoning his disciples, he said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 For they all gave out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had - all she had to live on.”

End of story. Jesus doesn’t go over and praise her, Jesus doesn’t make a bag of gold appear on her table, we know nothing else about this widow. But Jesus saw this widow and He saw her faith in God, while others were giving of their excess, what they had left over, she gave out of her poverty, out of what little she had. All she had to live on. What does this teach us about giving? We should be giving out of faith - we should be giving not only out of what is left but out of what is first. You can argue if we are ot give out of our pre-tax or post-tax income… personally I don’t think God cares which we choose so long as we’re giving out of faith - but when I teach people to budget - the first thing I like to line item, is giving. We should prioritize giving. The widow couldn’t give 100 coins like some of the wealthy, but she could give 2, and she did. And in the eyes of Jesus those two tiny coins were greater than the wealthiest people’s many coins. NOW does that mean the wealthy can’t please God with their giving… no, they can and should give, and God finds glory in their giving too, but for it to be sacrificial in the way it is for those like the widow, you may have to give more; or in addition to monetary giving perhaps offer more time or service to God, finding ways to make your giving one that requires faith as well. We need to learn to give like the widow, not the others.

Now if we look to 2 Corinthians 9 we can see another attribute of giving. We will in verse 6 so feel free to turn there. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and reminding the of the needs in Macedonia, and Corinth’s expectation to send a financial gift to their sister church, and is telling them to have the gift ready when he arrives. Then Paul gives them this deceleration SLIDE 17

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.”

This verse has been used out of context often to promote a health wealth and prosperity gospel - which saddens me, God is not promising us wealth if we give… but we do see the truth - God is able to make every grace overflow to you so that in every way, we will have what we need AND may excel in every good work. So what do you think happens if God gives us grace… then we don’t excel or even try to do those good works… I don’t want to find out! I don’t want to risk God’s wrath when I’m be given God’s grace, don’t risk it do as God calls!

The giving principle here, however is that we need to give as we have decided not reluctantly but cheerfully! The original Greek word here, hil-air-e-ous, actually is in the linguistic family that resulted in our current words hilarious and gracious! a better translation may than be God love a hilarious giver - a gracious giver - a giver filled with joy not compulsion. But too often, speaking for myself now, when we give we’re not joyful… we right that check, we drop that cash in the plate, we check that box online… however you give… and we think… if I didn’t give this to the church I could go on an extra vacation, I could buy a new game, I could go out to eat… And there is a reason for that - when we are giving to the church or to missions we are saying I would rather support the church, I would rather support the missionaries, than have these things - I would rather God be glorified than myself be entertained. We are putting our money where our worship is.

There is a verse people misquote a lot - I used to thing it went like this.

Money is the root of all evil....

Anyone else ever quoted that before… well… we were quoting it wrong. What scripture really says is SLIDE 18

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Money is not evil, but loving money is evil. Jesus says in Matthew 6. SLIDE 19

24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

When we give sacrificially to the church, to missions, to kingdom work - we are putting our money where our mouths are and saying I worship this master - this God - not this one!

So who will you worship? God or money? For the record pastors don’t like preaching on this because if we’re paid by the church it can come off as self serving. But sometimes we need to because

A) we can’t neglect parts of the Bible because they are uncomfortable

B) ignoring part of scripture in our preaching is a disservice to you all who need to learn the whole of scripture

C) we pastors need to hear this too - because guess what… pastors have to give too, pastors have to tithe too! Yes I get paid by the church… then I turn around and give a portion of my pay right back to it!

We need to give sacrificially like the widow at the temple. We need to give cheerfully, hilariously, graciously like the church in Corinth. We need to give to our master who we serve.

If you checked out our facebook this last week you should have seen two videos, one Monday on scripture reading and one Wednesday on scripture memory. This week hopefuly you will see two again, one on serving and one on giving, so again if you don’t follow us on facebook you should give us a like. If you don’t have facebook don’t worry I’m hoping to get our youtube back up and running soon… key word being hoping…

Let me pray for us; then before dismissing you I’ll finally end your curiosity about what these are!

Pray // Cards // Dismiss