Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning, we are in a series entitled, “The Generous life.”

We are also starting up our community Groups… and it is still not too late.. it was such a blessing this last week to hear stories of thankfulness..... of God’s provision --- not just in the past but right in the present…

The Generous life comes from this idea that there are inputs and outputs in life… When Jesus commissioned his disciples he told them “freely they had received freely give.”

The metaphor that we are using is that of a funnel of God blessing being poured out and we becoming the recipients of all that God has given… God’s Generosity is seen in Creation — and it’s also seen in his nature and attributes...

The Generous life has to be founded on this premise that God is Good.... Often in Africa pastors will start a sermon with the words God is Good all the time.... and the congregation would respond “and All the time God is Good.”

Simple but true… Many of them had nothing… to be honest… yet they knew this truth...

Here is the thing... Regardless of how we feeling right now God is good... God is is always rooting for us…He has our best interests at heart… This is foundational…

If we have this thought that God is holding out on us or that he really does not care or love us… this is going to become a barrier to us in receiving all that God has for us…

James shows us the Goodness of God towards us.

James is writing this letter to Christians who are experiencing terrible persecution.

And it would be easy to imagine that during the midst of their fiery trial that they would question — God’s Goodness.

James puts the record straight… He reminds them of the God’s Character… He says..

“Every good gift and Every perfect gift from Above” — .

Everything that is beneficial for us and every Gift that is complete with out defect or blemish Comes God the Father - - In fact God loves to bestowing Good things on his Children…

What do we call ‘good’?

Good health?

Family?

Firm and unfailing friendship?

Freedom?

The smile of a child?

The singing of the birds?

The thunderous crash of the waves?

The majesty of the mountains?

The warmth of a fire in the winter and the cool of the breeze in the summer?

These all come from God—and thousands of other things, too!

If it is good, it comes from God!

Stotts commentary tells us… That God gives everything that could possibly be needed; he gives everything, holding nothing back.

In giving, he is simply beneficent, for in its character everything he gives is good.

And in giving, he is exactly appropriate to what is required: his gifts are perfect.

James in calling God ‘the Father of lights’, is taking about the realm of astronomy.

This is a realm of constant variation.

Stars vary in brilliance.

The moon waxes and wanes.

The sun rises and sets.

It creates all kinds of shadows and sometimes is eclipsed.

But what is commonplace in the realm of astronomy is never true of God.

With him there is never any waxing or waning or any kind of eclipse.

He is always the same.

And that means he is always good.

God does not have days when he has more goodness than on other days.

His goodness is always undiminished and unchanged.

Kent Hughes says,

‘God does not change like shifting shadows.

God’s goodness is always at high noon.’

Kent Hughes

The enemy will come in tell you otherwise.

He will tell you that God has less favour towards you today than he had for you yesterday.

And it is your fault!

This morning we are looking at the Blue Print of Generosity..

A couple of weeks ago Pam and I had the opportunity to travel to Portland for the weekend… It was special because it was close Valentines… So our goal was to see and experience as much of Portland over the weekend...

I downloaded this app called “Trip it.

To be honest I am not sure exactly how this happens but all your flights and accommodations come into one place — some how through cloud make there way into the app… Then from there you can literally map out your whole trip… — the modes of transport — Uber, bus or the Max rail.. it will give you cost comparisons and the time it will take to get you there.... you can search for Places you want to visit and basically program the app… Once that is done you literally just have to follow the Blueprint… We walked something like 26 miles and experience much of Portland… Our one Uber drive gave us the advice that you have to eat way through Portland… Their food is pretty incredible…

There is something about a Plan that keeps us on track…keeps us on task...

The adage —Fail to plan is to plan to fail...

Well when it comes Creation there are basically two competing views we have the Biblical View and then Scientific view.... To be honest these views don’t really have to contradict each other… But the reality is that these two views stand directly opposed to each other… basically..

1. Science teaches us that the universe was created by the Big bang in the universe… then over billions of years through evolutionary process life slowly formed the universe as we know it today… Science teaches us a kind of accidental universe — It happened by chance that moves from — Chaos --- to order..

2. The biblical view sees an architect with a Blue print… As we look at creation… we see intelligence, order and design...

There are definite rhythms we have 24 hours in Day… we have four distinct seasons - We have physical laws that keep everything in place… So we see a Blue Print..

to be Framed or created (equipped) v. — to be created, furnished and prepared for a use or purpose.

The plan of creation was ultimately to make know the invisible qualities of God known… made through the eternal Christ and for him.

— The plan of creation was to make known the Glory (sum of the attributes of God)… Calvin said it like this… Creation is the “Theatre of his Glory.”

In the Genesis we have narrative of Creation — we God’s goodness being revealed through out the record.

Seven times in the course of Genesis 1 we see God declares that what God saw was Good.. then in Genesis 3 when God had finished Creating everything… He said it was very Good… We can say that God’s plan was utimately Good… and it is still is Good..

However, as we read on in Genesis..

We learn that this perfect world that God created was disrupted when Adam and Even — took of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of Evil and sin entered into our world…Things from that moment changed..

Romans 5 tells us what took place in that moment..

Notice that sin did not begin with Adam, it merely entered into the human race through him.

It had its beginning with Lucifer own disobedience… (Ez.

28:12–17).

Sin came into the world literally means to spread through…Sin literally came through the front door… and penetrated the entire human race… like a vapor permeating all of a house’s rooms…

Have you ever wondered why we all were impacted by Adam’s sin?

There are two views out there..

a.

Federal Headship - this view says that Adam is representative of the human race.. Adam’s act of sin was representative of all people

b.

The natural Headship view.. which recognizes that the entire human race was seminally or physically in Adam.

Pam shared this interesting article with me the other day … about the amazing facts about child birth… One of them is that all of a woman’s eggs that a mother has are already in place from the womb…mind blowing

When you think that fact --- it would mean that in Eve every living being… could potentially be in Eve.. Paul tells us that all of mankind (passed tense) sinned in Adam…

When Sin entered into the world .

Not only was the human race impacted but creation itself - The first consequence that God tells Adam — that the earth itself was cursed…Everything in creation was impacted.

HOW DID THIS IMPACT THE BLUEPRINT?

GOD’S PURPOSE?

Tim Keller Somes up Creation Story like this...

God made the universe in the beginning, kind of the way a clockmaker makes a clock, but God put himself into the clock, and humanity was the key cog.

If the universe was a clock, and you could open up the back, the way it was originally designed, there was humanity right in the center, meshing with God above and meshing with nature beneath.

We were the stewards of the world, God’s stewards in nature.

When we decided to when we decided we wanted to be owners, we wanted to be our own kings, we wanted to be our own masters, that was like a cog falling off of its axle down into all of the wheels below.

The moment we decided to be our own directors, what happened to the universe is exactly what would happen to a clock if that happened.

That is, the universe began to smoke and grind and crack and splinter.

There were coils and springs and levers flying off in every direction

Everything is decaying.

Everything is in the process of falling apart.

Everything is disintegrating.

Everything is unraveling because that cog has fallen off of the axle, down into the bottom of the clock.

Everything is groaning.

Everything is crunching.

Things aren’t working right.

So disease and decay come in, injustice and oppression come in, and fear and guilt come in..

He promised not to let us die forever.

He promised that someday he’d come back and he would set up his kingdom anew.

He would put humanity back on the axle and he’d mesh with us again from above.