Give and Take

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I - A Story about trying to fill my cup.

Y - CuP Story

We All have a Cup that needs to be filled.

We All have a Cup that needs to be filled.

We fill it in all kinds of ways

Love, food, success, safety, prosperity, entertainment, experiences,

Usually it has to do with Give and take relationships (work, family, friends, commerce)

We give so we can Take later or get something

When its full, feel like we can give more to others.

...

But if usually feels like we cant quite get there

...
no matter what we never quite get it, it always FEELS EMPTY
There are lots of things we try to fill that cup, but still...

G - Jesus says hear me, “If you want to have enough, give.”

TRANS: In Jesus day there were lots of ideas about filling up that cup. “Living the good life”

2 Big ways to fill your cup in the ANE

Patronage System -

Give Gifts to peers to build mutually beneficial relationships.
Give Gifts to people lower in the ladder to receive honor and respect.
Pharisees System
Submit to the Law and Religious leaders.
Receive Respect
God will bless you.

They are both systems of Strategic Giving.

Giving only with the intention of receiving some benefit in exchange. Giving in the same way you “give” 2 quarters to a vending machine to “take” a coke.
But these systems, and the other systems of the day were coming up short.
For those who are still listening Jesus outlines a list of practices that make no sense in the real world.
Otherwise why are people so interested in Jesus?
Like our systems they are leaving people empty.
POINT: In a world full of haters, takers, and graspers. Jesus says if you want to have enough, Give.
Like our systems they are leaving people empty.
TRANS: When it becomes clear to us that our cup is empty we go looking for help.
Here is our crowd...
needy looking to be filled up.
(hungry, sick, poor, mourning, curious) Recognizing their lack.
Otherwise they wouldn't be here.
Like these kinds of systems always have
so they come to jesus to hear

Jesus claims that in him a new World (kingdom) is coming RIGHT THEN

(explain what he means)
Our text is him explaining what it is like to live in that new kind of world.
Text

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Luke 6:27–31 NIV
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Explain how this is very different than patronage/reciprocity and Religion points
Luke 6:32–36 NIV
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
this is different...
Luke 6:37–38 NIV
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Luke 6:37-38
This is different than how anyone at the time understood giving. HOW?
Its different than how we understand Giving.
It is not the give and take we are used to.
Jesus says in my kingdom, “Instead of using what you have to strategically fill your own cup, Pour it out for those least likely to give anything back to you.
People that Hate you
People that are enemies to you
People that dont pay their debts
People that take you for granted.
People that dont write thank you notes.
People that DONT deserve your help.
And the natural question even if we are perhaps afraid to ask it is, The Question I struggle with is,
“But If I pour my cup out for others how will I ever have enough?”
Elaborate, doormat ect.
To that Jesus offers...
Luke 6:38 NIV
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
He says to all of us who have that cup to fill, that we cant ever quite get enought for, he says to us who are afarid of losing the little we have.
He says In my kingdom, He says if you belive me, in my kingdom,
SS - “If you want to have enough, give.”
If Jesus stopped here. With this command or advice. I’m not sure it would be worth following....
(elaborate… what if I give and …)
Because the reality is in the real world when you give to people that cant or wont give back you eventually run out. It is not a decent lifestyle, it is not a way to be filled up.
But he doesnt stop here and Luke doesnt end with this verse.
Jesus lives this out all the way to the cross and tomb...
explain
Jesus goes on
Pouring
emptying
to the point of death
Where we fear, “If I give like this I will be left empty”
Jesus is not left empty.
the apostle Paul puts it like this.
Philippians 2:6–8 NIV
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Philippians 2:
Philippians 2:6–11 NIV
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
philippians
Philippians 2:9–11 NIV
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Where we fear, “If I give like this I will be left empty”
But Jesus is not left empty.
in 3 days he comes back from the dead more full than ever.
His ressurection proved that his new kingdom had arrived.
He gave all, and it was given back, a full measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, was poured into his lap.
He invited his disciples to do the same.
And they poured out theirs lives too. Facing threats, presecution, and death. All counting on the same ressurection Jesus had expreienced in the last day.
We are invited to have the same thing.
That is the gospel

Y

Y

We can choose to Keep striving for ourselves in all the ways we do. Keep taking, keep grasping, keep strenthening, and Humans use all kinds of things to meet this need.
Take People who love us
Take morality poitns
Take God's blessing by trying to do the right thing
Take Money posessions
Take medicine in hopes of living longer.

W

Take by competing with others
But the more we fill up our own cup the emptier it is. The more you use the drug, the longer your vacation, the harder you work the emptier your cup is.
We have all experienced it. When we try and fill our own cups it always just winds up emptier.
Its counter intuitive. Jesus claims the more you pour out the fuller you will be.
The more you give, the more you surrender, the more you let go of the more you will have. Even up to and through your own death. Even if you empty yourself to death, FULL life is waiting. A life that makes the best bits of this life seem like chuck-e-cheese pizza
That is the good news and we are invited to have a share in that new kingdom. If we only accept it.
Admit our failures and our lack, our emptyness before God and ourselves
Believe the good news
And live like its true (pour out on those who dont deserve it TRUSTING in Jesus and be filled)

W

(When we try and get there throgh striving no matter how full we should feel we are just that much more empty.) Like MAD MEN, like the rich person who seems pretty poor. No matter how many mountains you scale you never feel like you arrived, Because you CANT GET THERE FROM HERE>
BUT, if you finally recognize it, If you finally admit it, if you accept what JESUS offers you find that the more you pour out the more God fills you up. The mor you walk behind Christ, and empty the gifts given you the more overflowing your life is.
YOU will have arrived, ultimate secuirity, ultimate life, ultimate satisfaction, and ultimage ReST
of course you will doubt it at times, the forces of evil STRIVE to bring you back, they claw at you, but the more you turn and live like what he says is true. the more you double down on his foundation, the more you will realize you have arrived, the more you will find REAL LIFE REAL REST REAL SATISFACITON that is not depenedent on the "weather" of life.
Root your life on his, accept his gift and live it out!
Lets pray
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