Caring for Others

Intro:

Welcome back! Hope everyone had an amazing long weekend and enjoyed their Thanksgiving.

Over the past month we have seen how important it is to be generous with our money, but generosity has more than just one currency.

We can be generous with our time, our words, our knowledge and especially our testimony of how Jesus is the only path to real relationship with the Father.

My question is - how easy is it for us to think about being generous through our every day walk? It can be tricky to focus and live out what is most important and the ability to focus on the most critical skills at the right moment is the thing that separates those who are pretending and those who are contending for the faith.

Where can we find our focus in this distracting world?

Lets take a look at what the Bible says about focus and generosity.

KISS - Keep it Simple Silly

Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

For those of you who come to our connect groups (cough - 9AM on Sunday Mornings) you have heard it almost weekly now - Love God and Love others.

We have a tendency to make things much more complicated than they actually are. Following Christ is no different. Maybe we think it is a long list of do’s and do not’s. Maybe we think we have to serve every second of every day to be counted as worthy of God’s love, and mercy and grace. Maybe some of us are so legalistic that we think we have to follow all 613 laws exactly or we run the risk of slipping out of God’s favor.

What Jesus told the religious leaders (and we would be wise to remember) was all the laws, all the acts of service, all the just one more rule to follow has been condensed into 2 very simple and very easy commandments. Love God - (which should be obvious if you are a Christian) and to love others. EVERYTHING ELSE IN YOUR LIFE HINGES ON THESE TWO COMMANDMENTS.

This is what matters. This is where our focus should be pointed - Loving God and Loving others. What is so beautiful about the relationship of these two commandments is you Love God by loving others well.

Abound in Love

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

This is actually a prayer by Paul for the people of Thessalonica. Thessalonica was made up of gentiles or non-Jews. Which means the culture that had been developed apart from much knowledge of the God of the Israelites. Instead, there were multiple belief systems and gods that had taken the mantle of spiritual direction for the people of Thessalonica. The Christian Thessalonians were under enormous social pressure to abandon their faith and were constantly tempted to lose focus on the things that mattered most.

Is today much different than the culture of Thessalonica? I would venture that maybe the modes of pressure or distraction have changed, but the principles stand to this day. We have the “stars” of the movie, music and even political world telling us to shift our worship to something more worthwhile. How many little g gods in disguise do we fight each day? So and so didn’t talk to me, how many likes did I get on my post?, how far can I push the envelope with my parents?

Including prayer - what is another way we can adjust our sights back to what really matters? Remember that we can keep it simple - love God and love others. Jesus even says in John 13:35 -

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Paul had a heavy but hopeful prayer to consistently point the new Christians back to God in the seasons of focus and even in the seasons of distraction. “So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness.”

We get so consumed or worried about all things me we are like the Seagulls from Finding Nemo “Mine, mine, mine, mine”. We simply forget to ask God what He is inviting us into.

God has always hoped we would live and be part of what He is doing in the world, including generously loving and caring for each other. This is what Jesus went to the cross for! We don’t need to over complicate it. When we lose focus, ask God for strength and love to overflow so that we can be generous by caring for each other.

But is our call to love others limited?

Love your Enemy

Paul had this to say in Romans 12:20-21

20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Paul knows first hand how difficult it is to love our enemies, but he refuses to let the level of difficulty become an excuse for evil.

Just last week, I was having one of those deep conversations with our kids when I was reminded of the all encompassing power of God’s forgiveness. When we are saved, we are forgiven for all of our past sins, our present sins, and even our future sins. But do we treat others with the same standard?

Usually when we forgive we can easily forgive past sins, maybe it stings, but we can forgive others of current sin. But what about future sins they may commit against you? Do you hold onto your generosity because you don’t trust how it will be received?

Y’all this punched me in the face last week - we are not asked to assess how well our generosity will be received or if it will be effective - we are simply commanded to give it to those we love and to those who don’t love us.

Big Three

Be Wise

Matthew 10:16 ESV

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Keep it simple silly - Love God, love others. Don’t know what to do to help someone else - pray about it, listen to the Spirit and He will guide you to His plan.

Be Engaged

Hosea 4:6 ESV

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

How can you expect to continue to grow in Christ if you are not growing your knowledge of His word? Distraction takes many forms - maybe its your failures or your mistakes that are dragging you down. Embrace the forgiveness the Father offers and lean into His knowledge. As you grow in Truth you will see other areas and ways that you can give generously to others.

Be Focused

We are all have our good days and our bad days. Instead of fixating on the bad and where we missed the mark. Look for ways to love others. From the simple and mundane to the big gestures - the how doesn’t really matter if the why is on point.