Our Generous God

Sermon Style Sheet

Write that down in your formation Journal

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Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Scripture

Call to Worship

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Psalm 8:9 CSB

9 Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!

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Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 3:40-4:30 11:32-12:16 1:05-1:49 Page 137

John 4:46–54 CSB

46 He went again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die. 48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” 49 “Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.” 50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed. 51 While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. 52 He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him,” they answered. 53 The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. 54 Now this was also the second sign Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.

Opening Illustration:

Peter’s Tipping in the Restaurant

not only was he stingy he was actively trying to block her from a tip! Sometimes we can think that God is cheap when it comes to us. Like he doesn’t want to answer our prayers and take our requests.

But what we see is this: God is generous and has goodwill towards us

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Getting into the Sermon

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Recap: he was in Jerusalem and then Samaria, now he is Galilee and then he went to Cana

John 4:46 CSB

46 He went again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.

So this is where he had turned water into wine. We don’t know why he went there. Maybe he knew someone. That might have been why he was at the wedding.

Then we find out something that is going on in Capernaum. There is a royal official there who has a sick son.

Now we don’t know a lot about the royal official. He isn’t named. A lot of people are named in the gospels, so we don’t know why he wasn’t. Perhaps it was to protect his identity.

But the Royal official was probably seen by many as being part of the problem in society. He was upper class, he would be elite. A lot of the people who jesus ministered to were poor, down, lowly.

It would be easy for people to think of this guy as not one of Jesus’ normal people.

What we are going to see is that Jesus doesn’t have a type.

He loves everyone and he helps all sorts of people

Maybe you are here and you think “well I don’t know if jesus would really want me. I’m not a church person.” But Jesus doesn’t have a type.

Maybe there is someone you are praying for an you think I don’t know if they will come, they aren’t the church type. Jesus doesn’t have a type.

That’s one of the things we want to be at Mercy Hill - a church without a type.

So this official has a son and that son is ill. You know we can dehumanize the people we don’t like. We can make treat them as if they don’t have emotions and don’t really matter. But here is the man and he has a son and his is sick. Really sick. About to die sick.

And the man is panicked. He loves his son. He is a human even though he may not be your type of person. He cares for his son and he is heart broken.

Since he was a wealthy and well-connected man, we can assume that he has done everything in his power to heal his son. He probably hired doctors, maybe he brought people in from out of town. He has done everything possible, tried the medicines, tried the treatments. Nothing was working.

John 4:47 CSB

47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.

So when he finds out that Jesus was in Cana he travels there from Capernaum. That’s about a day walk - maybe 17-25 miles. It’s a long walk. They didn’t have nice shoes. It was a haul.

But he is desperate. He wants his son to be healed.

And he goes to Jesus and it says that he “pleaded” with jesus.

Everyone say that word - pleaded

He was praying. He was begging. He was doing what every he could. He probably offered him money (it doesn’t say that - but you could imagine) he is doing whatever he could.

Have you ever been in the situation where you pleaded with God. Maybe you make promises - if you do this for me Lord, I’ll go to church every Sunday! If you do this I’ll give money, I’ll give my time, I’ll never sin.

That’s where this man is.

Now verse 48 can be hard. It’s jesus’ response

John 4:48 CSB

48 Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

The guy is coming and pleaded and begging and Jesus gives him a rebuke.

It seems weird but we need to remember something important, God will never be our vending machine.

That’s not what He is. God is generous but he does test us.

One commentator said it this way, “

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume John 4:43–54

Christ first shows him his sin and weakness, to prepare him for mercy, and then grants his request. Those whom Christ intends to honour with his favours he first humbles with his frowns. The Comforter shall first convince.

This is important to get. What type of person does your bidding? A slave. A servant. An employee.

When we demand things, the only people who does what we want without question is a slave. And we would make Jesus a slave.

Phenominal cosmic powers - itty bitty living space

This is what ancient magic did. They would have make the god’s beholden to them. They would manipulate the god’s. They would demand form the god’s.

if we expect God to do whatever we ask, whenever we ask, no questions ask he stops being our God and becomes our slave

This is what we have a tendency to do. You and I both have a temptation to try to turn God into our slave- our vending machine.

But there is another type of person who does what you ask - a loving father. But he does it differently.

He doesn’t just give - hopefully not - he teaches as he gives.

You may get your child a car but hopefully you have taught them how to drive!

You give them things but you advise them on it. You teach them how to come to you.

You are a generous father, or mother, but you aren’t a slave.

A parent mixes generosity with wisdom to teach us

That’s what Jesus is doing. He is teaching him.

God is not his genie but He is his father

Now look at the response:

John 4:49–50 CSB

49 “Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.” 50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed.

It’s not recorded the words he said before, but he comes to him humbly now. He calls him sir.

But also pay attention to this - he doesn’t give up. Sometimes God wants us to pursue him. to continue to come to him because He knows the right timing and he wants us to continue with our prayers.

And what does Jesus say - “your son will live.” The man believes him.

Why did he do this? he’s generous. He wants people healed.

Notice this - the man believed Jesus even though he didn’t see Jesus’ miracle. The whole time he wanted Jesus to come so he could see it. But now, he is filled with submission and faith and believes jesus that he has healed him!

So let’s read the rest of the passage because it is fun.

John 4:51–53 CSB

51 While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. 52 He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him,” they answered. 53 The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household.

It was too dangerous to walk at night so he had to wait until the next day. And he see’s what Jesus did and he beleives and his whole household believe.

I love that. They didn’t just say, “what a coincidence” The beleived!

Now when we see passages like this, part of what we need to ask is what does it teach us about God. There are two things that are pretty clear.

First Jesus has power to heal that isn’t tied to time or space. He can just say the word and someone a day’s walk away is healed.

There is nothing that our God can’t do

Some times there are things that we pray about and we think, “God can’t do that.” That’s too much. That’s not how he works. And so we don’t pray.

we are so convinced of our own superior knowledge and pessimism

Some of you pray too small!

But this guy, at first he thought Jesus had to heal by being there and now he believed in his word.

He wants to do things.

The question is “when I pray is God being cheap?”

Here we see his generosity! The guy comes to jesus and he isn’t the type of guy that we typically associate with jesus. He is something different. He has privilege and power.

But Jesus doesn’t have a type and he is generous in his gifts. he heals the boys son because Jesus desires the darkness to be pushed back and the devil defeated.

sometimes we can doubt that - we can doubt his love - not only does he love you he hates the work of the enemy

Every day that the devil is defeated is a good day for Jesus!

God’s not cheap - he’s generous towards. He wants good things for you.

His heart for us is for our good.

So what do we see about God: There’s nothing he can’t do, and he is generous!

Gospel

Irony who struggles with thinking God is stingy forgets that He is preparing a mansion for you.

ABC”s of Repentance

Yes he loves you - he can do everything and he wants to bless you.

But we need to think about what this teaches about God but also how do we respond to this?

So how does this impact our prayer life? We hold in one hand the reality that jesus is generous, and he isn’t our vending machine. But what does this all mean. Is Jesus going to heal me? Is he going to heal my child? Is he going to answer my prayer?

Or why does he heal this guy’s kid but doesn’t answer my prayer?

It causes a lot of confusion because our underlying assumption, our spiritual reflex is still one of Karma-

And those are difficult things.

Should every Christian expect healing?

or maybe he doesn’t really love me, or he isn’t really all powerful, or there’s something wrong with me.

So I want to show you an obscure but really important passage. it’s very important in our culture because we can start to believe in Karma.

Let me give you the setup - Elijah and then Elisha

2 Kings 13:14 CSB

14 When Elisha became sick with the illness from which he died, King Jehoash of Israel went down and wept over him and said, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!”

Ok, now I don’t care about King Jehoash. We aren’t even going to talk about him.

I want you to see this: Elisha is sick and is going to die even though he has healed people, he raised a dead person.

Look, Elisha is a better Christian than you and a better Christian than me. He is a hero of the faith. He got sick and died.

Now, some people might assume that this would mean that Elisha some how fell out of favor with God. Some people might think he lost his faith, that’s why God didn’t heal them. But you would be wrong.

A man was murdered and thrown into Elisha’s tomb - and the man came back to life! Even his bones were doing miracles!

But he didn’t get healed - why is that’?

So God didn’t heal Elisha but he did heal the official’s son. What do we do with this?

God’s heart is the same for all of us, but his plan is different for each of us.

God’s heart’s the same but his plan is different.

He knows what’s best for you, he knows how to make you great. He knows how to define that for you specifically.

Coveting is so wrong - when desire someone else’ life, spouse, house, car, job, money

The biggest thing we need to remember is that God is after your heart and in his generosity, he is going to work to connect your heart to his heart.

Heaven’s the real goal

God is desires to cultivate our hearts in such a way that we are so connected to God relationally that when we die, we aren’t going to a stranger’s house, we are going to our Father’s home.

That’s the relationship he wants for us. And in working that he wants to answer our prayers, he wants to help shape our prayers

So here’s the deal, go to him where you are authentically. You can say selfish prayers, remembering that he his generous and wise. and he will help shape our hearts.

Start by praying authentically.

That’s part of the fun of prayer and a realationship with God. He starts to change us. We start to get to know him better.

press in -get to know me - get to know my love

Like my kids.

If you don’t go to him with the real you, he can’t change the real you. It’s a fake relationship.

Exercising his generosity through wisdom for our good.

Listen, here’s the deal, I just had a birthday yesterday, I’m 45. I’m in that age where I’m not young and I’m not old. I would say, I’m not old but I am old enough, and I am old enough and have been a Christian long enough to have seen God work in a lot of ways.

I’ve seen quick answers to prayer - the type where it’s like this very hour. I’ve seen some that have taken years. I’ve seen both. And when I look back on both the short-term answers and the long-term answers to my prayers the verdict is the same-

His timing was perfect - he is always faithful.

Praying for more retirees

So the trick is that we bring our requests to God, like a child, authentically, understanding that he is generous and wise and teaching us.

But we need to get to align our heart with God’s heart.

Then you start to see more answers to your prayers, because you are praying more, you heart is aligned with God’s heart.

Extended time in prayer with bible reading. Over weeks, months years

This is why we are praying for some retiree’s. They have the wisdom we need.

My prayer for you this week was that you would be captivated by the generosity of God and desire to push in with this deeper vibrant relationship. That you pray authentically understindating there’s nothing he can’t do, and he wants to bless but he exercises his generosity through wisdom.

And remember, this isn’t just about me and Jesus, there is a community.

It was about the whole household, and even beyond. He healed that boy so you could be convicned of God’s generosity towards you.

So we want to be praying in community too.

That’s why we have the prayer banner, that’s why we have the connect cards - scan them or turn them in.

Remember, that God excercises his generosity through wisdom for our good. there is nothing that God can’t do, so let’s lean in, align our hearts with God and prayer big prayers together.

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.