For God so Loved, He Gave

Bible Passage: John 3:16

INTRO

“Soma Church exists to love the body of Christ and equip them to do the work of ministry here, near and far, all for the glory of God.”

Recently, the elders took some time to discern if there were any topics that we should take some time to teach on from the pulpit and out of that came our family series called Sacred Ground and beginning today, a two week teaching on generosity called Everything You Have.

Now, I recognize that coming to church and hearing the pastor say that we are talking about generosity can immediately make many of us nervous or disengage.

If that is you, I want to say three things…

First, our primary aim in any teaching that we do here is the glory of God manifest in your life.

Second, your generosity or lack thereof, is my concern only so much as I am commanded to teach you the full counsel of God. You must decide if you will obey.

And third, if your church teaching on being generous offends you, then I encourage you to search the scripture for yourself and see if we are wrong.

With that said, as I have been preparing for this message the last few weeks, the best example of generosity that I both witnessed and experienced is my parents.

My mom and dad are some of the most generous people I have ever met.

They practically furnished our home when Jenna and I were in the first couple years of marriage.

Topps guy card story

But by far the most generous thing that I have seen my parents do is adopt two of my younger brothers.

Show Photo of the boys

Adoption had always been something that they felt called by God to do but it didn't come to fruition until they were in their early 40’s.

Instead of coasting into their empty nest years, they generously brought in two beautiful boys and are raising them in the fear of the LORD now into their 50’s.

My parents will be mid 60’s by the time the boys are all done with highschool.

This taught me so much as a young man about what it means to live radically generous.

I was taught very tangibly that our lives and resources are given to us by God and are intended to be leveraged for His glory.

In the case of my family, sacrificing season of life, good sleep, comfort in order to rewrite the story of two little boys who had nothing.

I believe the greatest sign of love is how much we are willing to give up for it.

I want you to know this morning that the God who we have come here to lift high and enjoy loved you and I so much that he gave us everything… His son.

The centerpiece of the gospel, God’s story of redeeming a people and forgiving them of their sins is generosity.

The title of my message this morning is For God so Loved, He Gave.

BODY

If you have grown up around church you know that line comes from perhaps the most well known bible verse of all time, John 3:16.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

These words uttered by Jesus himself to Nicodemus and now to us, gives us a full frame portrait of our Father’s heart…

Our Father’s heart is generous.

The God of all creation who has all authority at his finger tips is generous with his children.

He’s not stingy, He’s not selfish, He’s generous.

Let’s break this verse down and look into the heart of The Father.

For God so Loved the World

Jesus says that God’s primary motivator for being generous is his love for his people.

This is inseparable from His nature because God Himself is love.

For God so agapaō.

This word at face value has the very obvious meaning that we see here in our english translations of the Bible, but it is not just a descriptive word but functions more as an adjective.

agapaō means to show love, demonstrate love, to take pleasure in or to love based on regarded value.

One of the points of tension that Jenna and I have had to work through at points in our marriage is how we like to be loved by the other.

I am a physical touch person and Jenna is an acts of service person.

I want to cuddle and Jenna wants me to clean her car without asking.

But isn’t it interesting to think that all of us receive love in that way…

It is one thing to say to someone, “I love you.” It is another to then show your love through tangible demonstration.

1 John 4:9–10 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

God’s love was made manifest among us in His son Jesus.

And think about what that Just said in verse 10. That God loved us when we hated Him.

But through the love of God being given to us in the person of Christ, we can be granted the ability to love Him and to know Him.

Let me ask you, what do you love most?

If you show me what you love, I will show you where you are generous…

God shows us His love through His generosity…

That He Gave His Only Son

The Love of God extended the hand of God.

And in it was God’s most valuable treasure, His son.

The second person of the Trinity.

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.””

For all of eternity, God the Father, Son and Spirit had been together in a perfect relationship of love.

And then Jesus is sent by the Father to willingly step down from the glory of heaven and offer up His life for the world that hates Him.

God’s love led him to give everything He had.

This illustration isn’t even close to perfect but none are because we are talking about the God of the universe but this makes me think about my daughters…

What wouldn’t I give for them?

The answer is nothing. There is nothing that I wouldn’t give away or forgo ever having for the sake of my two little girls.

In a similar way, God gave everything to have you.

Because through the most generous gift ever given, Jesus, sinners like you and me can be saved from our sin and restored to a right relationship with the Father.

CLOSING

So what does this mean for us?

First, we must search our hearts and find out what we love most?

Here is a really practical tip to find that out, check your bank statement…

Matthew 6:19–21 ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

We tend to invest the majority of our resources in the things we hold most dear.

We are so quick to say “O God I love you” only to turn around and fail to follow His example He set for us to let that love lead us to be generous with Him.

To give back to Him our time, our talents and how about our treasures!

Can we truly say Psalm 63:1 “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

Second, we move towards radical generosity.

We begin to ask the Spirit of God to work on our hearts and make us more generous.

We begin to be attentive for ways in which we can be generous.

Maybe for you it means supporting a missionary like Madeline Griffith, or begin to give at the church.

Maybe you have been giving for a lifetime but never followed the model of the tithe and it is time for that to be your starting point.

Or you are a faithful giver to Gods house already but there is more you can do and you need to actively look for ways around you that you can invest in the Kingdom.

Maybe for you it looks like being generous with your time.

Become available for others.

Maybe you need to be generous with your talent.

You have a gift and its time to start using it.

As I think about adoption now as an adult, what that act of generosity has made me do is desire to extend that to another person.

It is the heart of our family to do the same thing for a child that my parents did for my brothers.

In the same way, today let us marvel at the loving generosity of our God and allow it to move us toward being people who model that radical generosity.

PRAY