Over The Top Week 2

Be generous by sharing the good news.

[INTRODUCTION]

We are in a series called Over the Top, where we're finding out that generosity has to do with much more than our finances.

Has anyone watched The Karate Kid? How about Cobra Kai? In the show, you must listen to your sensei and what they say.

Hand pushing activity. If you loose, give the other people advice.

[TRANSITION]

An early Christian leader, Paul helps us see how we can expand our understanding of generosity in a letter he wrote to a community of Jesus' followers in the ancient city of Thessalonica.

He wanted them to remember to follow Jesus from his experience when he lived with them.

1 Thessalonians 2:9–13 (CSB)

9 For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers and sisters. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers. 11 As you know, like a father with his own children, 12 we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

13 This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe.

This community experienced and received Paul as a teacher.

He reminds them of this and encourages them to live like he lived when he was with them.

It might sound like he is full of himself, but Paul didn't think he had everything together. He claimed to be someone trying to follow Jesus as his goal, and he wanted this community to do the same.

He encouraged the people to care for those around them in a way that reveals who Jesus is through unconditional care and without belittling anyone they serve.

He showed them, by example, that they are to love and care for each other and their neighbors, as a caring, compassionate parent or caregiver might care for a child.

The most crucial thing Paul gives away is the good news of who Jesus is and how to live like him.

Paul reminds them that he shared the good news of Jesus with them.

He didn't just tell them the good news, he showed them what it looked like to live it out by living with them and caring for them.

Paul generously gave everything away by showing and telling the Thessalonians what it looked like to follow Jesus.

When I look at someone like Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, I think, "Well, of course Paul can share this. It's Paul! That was just what he did."

I think it's helpful to remember he didn't have to do that . . . he chose to respond to God and what he knew to be true by sharing it with others, and we have that choice, as well.

Any of us can choose to respond like Paul. If God's love is central to our lives, we will naturally want to share it.

When you pair that with caring for others by generously giving your time like we saw Paul did last week, you probably won't teach them in a way that lectures or looks down on them. You'll share the good news by pointing others to the truth of who Jesus is in your experience.

[TRANSITION]

Paul shows us that we want others to experience and encounter Jesus' love the same way we have because we know what difference he has made in our lives.

There is a story in the book of Matthew about a family who had an experience with Jesus that was so over the top that they went and told everyone about it.

After healing someone in his hometown of Capernaum, Jesus encounters a local religious leader with a sick daughter on the verge of death. In a last-ditch effort to help her, the man had sought Jesus out, but his daughter died while he was out looking for him.

Matthew 9:23–25 (CSB)

23 When Jesus came to the leader’s house, he saw the flute players and a crowd lamenting loudly. 24 “Leave,” he said, “because the girl is not dead but asleep.” And they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.

The family would have been sure this little girl had passed before they would have called they called musicians to play music to mourn her death. So why does Jesus respond, even before examining her, that "she wasn't dead but asleep?"

Some religious laws in those days said God's people were not supposed to touch or interact with dead things, and because of this, the girl and her family were in a tough place. Everyone thought she was dead. So if Jesus raises her from the dead, as we know he will do, how do these laws apply to her?

Imagine how hard and complicated that would make her life. Would people touch or interact with her? Would anyone want to play or be friends with the zombie girl from Capernaum?

Jesus saved her from all those problems and questions by declaring she wasn't dead. Not only did he rescue her at that moment, but he was also looking out for her future. He wanted her to have a life filled with good and beautiful things.

When we receive Jesus' salvation, like this little girl, he gives us a new life and future. If we have had this experience, naturally, we would want others to.

[TRANSITION]

When people experience the transformational work of Jesus, they want to share it. Look at how the story ends.

Matthew 9:26 (CSB)

26 Then news of this spread throughout that whole area.

The people who witnessed this didn't keep it to themselves, they talked about it . . . a lot, so much that the news spread.

Our love for Jesus and others often looks like this kind of generosity. When we experience the love of God, we start to feel this same generosity growing in us that leads us to share the good news.

Those of us who know Jesus had someone in our lives who was generous enough to share the good news of Jesus with us and invite us to experience a transformative life of following Jesus.

[TRANSITION]

When we think about teaching others, we can tend to only think about a formal classroom scenario. It can be that, but it can also be much simpler. Teaching is simply sharing something you know or have experienced with others.

Bruce Lee is an icon of martial arts and the first leading actor of Chinese descent to star in a major Hollywood production. He was undisputedly the most famous martial artist of his time and perhaps ever, and when you're a master at something, lots of people want to learn from you.

When he taught others, he had a specific way he thought was most effective.

He said: "A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself."

Bruce Lee was on to something. Sharing the good news is less about dispensing facts and more about telling others about our experience with Jesus with our words and showing them Jesus in how we live.

As we do our part, Jesus takes over and is the one who leads them to encounter him for themselves.

That means the pressure is off! It means we can generously tell people the Good News of Jesus and what he is doing in our lives and let Jesus take it from there. It means we can be generous by sharing the good news.

[CONCLUSION]

When we share the good news, it's because we want what's best for the person we're sharing it with. That's what Jesus wants, too.

In the passage we looked at today, we saw that as we encounter and are transformed by Jesus, the desire to share his good news will naturally flow from us.

Here are three questions you can ask to help you get started.

WHY IS JESUS GOOD NEWS TO ME? Last week we saw that being honest about how we spend our time is crucial. We also need to be honest about who Jesus is to us. We need to ask questions about whether we think the story of Jesus is good news in our lives and be able to say why.

HOW IS JESUS HEALING ME? Just like the girl in Matthew's story and the lives of the Thessalonians, God is working in your life to make beauty and goodness happen. Those are the places where we can see the good news working in our lives and share that experience with others.

WHAT IS ONE STORY I CAN SHARE THIS WEEK? Find something God is doing in your life, and share the good news about how Jesus transforms you. Some weeks will be challenging, and finding a story to share will be hard, but it will feel like too many during other weeks.