Radical Generosity: Trust

INTRODUCTION

So, my wife is amazing. We trust each other with our whole lives. We have been there through ups and downs, some really great times and some really terrible times. And yet she still wakes up every day with me, tells me she loves me, and she never loses sight of my love for her. Most of the time.

Every once in a while, Beth wakes up next to me, and she is mad. At me. She is offended, hurt, incensed, betrayed, and broken by me. And it catches me off guard, because when we went to bed, everything was just fine. But then, in the morning, somehow everything changes. And the reason is because, for some reason or another, the dream version of me is a real jerk. Dream Jacob is thoughtless, uncaring, selfish—a real dirtbag. Dream Jacob apparently is a terrible husband, a bad father, and really lazy. And every so often, Dream Jacob shows up in the middle of the night and says and does super offensive and hurtful things. And then morning comes, and Real Jacob is left to clean up the mess.

I tell you this because sometimes our dreams mess with reality. It twists up and distorts the way things ought to be with an alternate version of the truth. And it can be hard to separate fact from fiction sometimes, because our dreams—the vision we have of good and evil—often feel so real, so possible, so right. And yet I think so often, that battle is one we must fight if we are to walk out the beautiful vision that God has for his church. We’ll talk about this more in a bit.

Today, we are finishing up a three-week deep dive into Acts 4:32-35; we are talking about what it means to be a radically generous people. Radical Generosity is not something you can replicate outside of the power and grace of God. Oh, sure, you can give money charitably. Lots of people are generous with their time and money, and Jesus has little or nothing to do with it. We are talking about giving to the church, but it is more than that. There is a difference between a church that gives and a church that is generous. Giving, on its own, comes from with you. I give based on what I, in my own power, my own ability, my own resources, am able to reasonably give, and the quality and quantity of my giving depends on me. But in Acts 4, we see something different. With generosity, I give out of a power and a grace that is not my own. It is sourced somewhere else; it is if I do not give, but someone gives through me. We don’t merely want to be a giving church. We want to be a generous church, inspired by the power of the gospel and the grace of Jesus, to multiply his power and grace to the ends of the earth.

PRAY

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned that, according to Acts 4:32-35, there are three keys to unlocking this kind of Radical Generosity in the church. The first key is Surrender. Surrender means making space for God in your priorities and pursuits. When you let go of whatever it is that you think will satisfy you, and you invite God to take a hold of every part of your life, radical generosity will follow.

The second key is Unity. Unity means loving and learning as one. One heart, one mind. A unified people are acutely aware of the needs among them, the hurting and the castaways. And that awareness leads to compassion and grace and action, action that looks like giving up whatever you’ve got for the sake of others. We love together, we learn together, and then, we give together.

That takes us to the third and final key...

TRUST

Acts 4:34–35 CSB

For there was not a needy person among them because all those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the proceeds of what was sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet. This was then distributed to each person as any had need.

The last key to Radical Generosity is trust. Let’s look at the order of events one more time. The apostles testify to the reality of the living Christ. There is this power behind it, bringing conviction, transforming the eyes of the people. The church believes; they surrender to the sufficiency of Christ because they know that every need will be filled by him. Surrender leads to unity. They have one heart, one mind. Everything in common, and no one is in need. People find such security in the family of Christ that they no longer need to put up walls and pursue their own peace. They gladly give it up so that orphans and widows and disabled and strangers can be fed and clothed and cared for. They sell land and homes and take that money and—look closely—they lay it at the feet of the apostles. The leader then take the money and steward it carefully, wisely. When they saw needs, they met them.

They surrendered, they found unity, and they trusted. And the result is one of most beautiful pictures of generosity in the Bible.

Now, here’s how I want to define trust for you today, based on this passage. Trust means letting God’s dream for community become your reality. Look again at v. 35. The people could have just as easily given the money to those who were hurting and socially expendable. But instead they bring it all to the leaders, and they trust that it will be handle the way God wants.

Let God’s dream for community become your reality. The Bible is not shy about sharing God’s dream for the church. Read Jesus’s Sermon on the mount, or John’s first letter to the church in Ephesus, or Peter’s letter to the scattered churches. Or the book of Acts for that matter. God’s dream—for a life-giving, grace-saturated, city-transforming society—is littered throughout the pages of the New Testament. It is bold, self-denying, and Spirit-filled. And it is far bigger and grander and more satisfying than any dream we could conjure on our own. And it does not matter if your church is thousands strong, or 30 strong, or 5 strong. God wants you to see your town, your kids, your church, your life, through his eternal eyes. And when you share that dream, you can give freely, serve joyfully, love sacrificially, knowing that you are being used by God to fulfill his dream here on earth.

When you trust God, when you trust his gospel, when you trust his church, you can experience the radical generosity of God. Giving itself is an act of trust. Think back to the early church. They took their gifts and laid it at the feet of the apostles. And as soon as they let it go, they were no longer in control. Their money was no longer theirs to see their own dreams realized, their own vision for the good life brought forward. Instead, they willingly trusted their leaders, that the great power from which they bore witness to Christ would also lead them to rightly and wisely use their blessings to bless others.

Sometimes your church will steward your generosity differently according to the season it is in. Sometimes your gifts will be used to support safe spaces and welcoming facilities for the community to gather into. Sometimes your gifts will support shepherds who teach and preach and minister. Sometimes your gifts will uplift the broken and provide for the poor. And sometimes your gifts will be spread across the globe, to church plants and pastors and communities in other continents. Different seasons call for different expressions of church stewardship. As God fills our vision with spiritual direction, we trust that he will provide through a gracious and generous community to help us get there. When radically generous people give, they trust that God will use it for his glory and for their good. They trust that spiritual leaders are walking in wisdom, and their witness is carried out through their gifts.

PROBLEM: SELF PROMOTION

With all of these keys to Generosity—Surrender, Unity, Trust—there are obstacles that keep us from getting there—The obstacle to surrender? Self-sufficiency, the need to be satisfied with your own accomplishments, achievements, affirmations. The obstacle to unity? Self-security, the need to be protected and made safe by your status and position. The obstacle to trust? Self-promotion. Self-promotion is the need to make my dream the reality. When everything I do promotes my vision for life, for the church, for my family, I limit my ability to trust, and I stifle the generous heart.

Now, out of the three keys I have given you to unlock Radical Generosity, Trust may be the hardest to accept, because it means handing your generosity over to another human being, who may use it differently than you would. No strings attached, no particular return on investment. And I get why this is hard. People are hard to trust, because we have been burned before. People break trust all the time. A wife gives her heart to hur husband, and then her husband abuses it with his porn addiction. A friend promises to have your back, then gossips about your personal life when you’re not around. Pastors and church leaders preach one thing and then live another. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched pastors fall because they’ve let their dream, and not God’s dream, become the reality, and God’s vision is blurred or pushed out to the margins. In fact, I bet that almost everyone here has had a horror story about the church that makes it really hard to trust.

I’ve mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, Life Together, the last two weeks, and I have yet another quote for you today. Listen close, because I believe what he says here is the source of many of the divisions and issues in the church today:

Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial. God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. Those who dream of this idealized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others, and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands, set up their own law, and judge one another and even God accordingly. They stand adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of the community. They act as if they have to create the Christian community, as if their visionary ideal binds the people together. Whatever does not go their way, they call a failure. When their idealized image is shattered, they see the community breaking into pieces. So they first become accusers of other Christians in the community, then accusers of God, and finally the desperate accusers of themselves.

Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community. Remember that story I told you earlier about my wife? Sometimes our dreams make us cynical and critical to the reality that lies in front of us. We want a church that is curated toward my needs, my gifts, my preferences or interests. I only like churches that quote certain authors or preachers. I only like churches that play hymns, or that only play modern songs, or that only play modern songs by that particular Americana-folk band. That’s the true church. I only give to churches that relay a specific percentage to missionaries, or to local needs groups. I want my church building to look good, but not that good; or, I hate that we have a building, it’s a waste of our money, so I won’t give if it goes to that.

Self-promotion says I will give if it means my dream becomes the reality. And just like self-sufficiency and self-security, our generosity is limited by its source. So if where you are giving is rooted in you, it will limited by you. Your sufficiency will limit what you can give and not be satisfied. Your security will limit what you can give and not be safe. Your promotion will limit what you can give and not be the center of everything.

I want encourage you: resist the urge to let personal preferences and expectations drive your vision of the church or determine the quality of your generosity. Instead...

SOLUTION: GOD PROMOTION

The solution to self-sufficiency? Christ-sufficiency (he is all I need). The solution to self-security? Christ-security (he will be my shelter, my safe space) What’s the solution to self-promotion? Christ-promotion. What’s the point of the church? To glorify God, to give him first importance in absolutely everything that we do. If God’s glory is the main thing, our generosity must be rooted in that.

Go back to Acts 4. Why do the people give to the apostles? Why do they trust the apostles with their money? Because they have proven themselves trustworthy. But how? Are they shrewd businessmen? Are they skilled accountants? Are they organizational geniuses? Nope. But they have a power that comes from God, and they did not use it for their own gain, but to point the world to Jesus with everything that they have. That makes them worthy of trust.

I came across this painting of the Martin Luther from the 16th century the other day. Luther is preaching to the masses, and in-between them is Jesus, hanging on the cross. I want you to zoom in on Luther. Luther is teaching from the Bible. He’s pointing to it, but he’s not looking at it. It’s the source of his witness, but it is not the goal. Instead, Luther is looking up and out, and he is pointing forward. Where? To the crucified Jesus. Jesus stands between pastor and church, and through him we come to understand the truth of the word, the testimony of believers, the grace and mercy we come to know. I’m reminded of Paul’s words, where he says he has resolved to know nothing and speak nothing but Christ crucified. But it also signifies how we come to trust leaders. Do they prop up Jesus with their teaching and theirs lives? Or do they prop up themselves? If it’s Jesus, trust them. Allow them to steward well, because if they point to Jesus with everything they’ve got, you can bet they’ll point to him with your gifts as well.