Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Hey, New Life Gillette Church. We are thrilled you decided to listen to our teaching on your favorite podcast app. If you made a decision to follow Christ today, would you let us know by visiting? Yes.newlife gillette.com Here is this week's teaching.
[00:00:25] Hey, we are, we're starting a series today. It's called Life on Mission nine Generosity. Now, try not to get too excited. Try to contain your excitement. We're going to spend the next four weeks talking about money in church.
[00:00:38] That's how excited I thought you were going to be. That's exactly it. No, we're in this series called Life on Mission Generosity. If you've been around New Life for a while, you know that we believe we're called to live our lives on mission, that this is kind of the baseline way followers of Jesus live on mission, and that there are skills that we learn to do that. Those skills are gathering, connecting, serving, giving and influencing. So in this series, we're talking about the skill of generosity. So we are going to be in Genesis chapter four. If you got a Bible, go ahead and open up there. Genesis chapter four. And while you're turning there, I want to say good morning to everybody joining us online. I know there are a lot of people watching from camp this weekend still celebrating. We're glad you're joining us. And to our friends over at, at the prison who join us every week, we're so excited that you're part of the family, too.
[00:01:32] Genesis, chapter four.
[00:01:35] Right in the beginning of the story, we see resources, money become part of, actually a really important part of the human story. Here's what it says. We're going to, we're going to start reading. In verse one, Adam made love to his wife Eve. Gross. And she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.
[00:01:55] She said, with the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man. Later, she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now, Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering, fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering. But on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor.
[00:02:22] So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast.
[00:02:27] Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you Must rule over it now. Cain said to his brother Abel, let's go out to the field. While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother. Abel killed him. Very uplifting story.
[00:02:51] Let's pray.
[00:02:53] God, this is your Word.
[00:02:55] And as we, as we ask every week, God, I ask that you would speak.
[00:03:00] We don't need my opinions.
[00:03:02] We need to hear from you. So I ask that if there's anything in this sermon that's consistent with your character and faithful with your word, would you plant it in our hearts, God? But if there's any of my opinions in this sermon, things that are not faithful to your character and consistent, would you let us notice those things so we can throw them away?
[00:03:22] Because we don't need my opinions.
[00:03:24] We love you, Jesus.
[00:03:25] Amen.
[00:03:27] I want to start off with a thought experiment this morning. We do this sometimes. I want you to imagine with me that it is a couple of days after my wife's birthday. My wife is sitting right over there, her birthday. And I want this public that I know this on Church 307 and on the Internet forever. Her birthday is October 15th. Guys, I knew it. I have witnesses now. I remembered it. All right.
[00:03:52] Actually, not just do I know her birthday, I also know our anniversary. It is April 5th. It was Easter this year. If you are working a church, do not get married in the early spring. It's a bad idea.
[00:04:03] But that is our anniversary and that is our birthday. That is her birthday. And I am going to write a book about marriage on how to have a happy marriage. And it is called Google Calendar. That's the book. Just put the birthday in the calendar, set it to remind you a month in advance you got time to buy a gift. You got everything you need. Don't tell her that. That's my secret, though.
[00:04:22] I want you to imagine with me that it's a couple days after her birthday and you see her at church or something and she's got a new necklace on. It's nice. It's a gift. Clearly it's new.
[00:04:33] It's not anything extravagant. And my wife isn't the type of person who wears extravagant jewelry that catches your eye. But it's a nice. It's a nice necklace, you know? So you say, hey, Jen, I like your necklace. Where'd you get that? And she says, oh, my husband bought this for me for my birthday. You'd probably think, oh, cool. That's normal, right? It's a pretty normal thing to do. Normal gift. But now I want you to imagine that a week or two later that you ran into a friend of our family, let's say another woman that Jen and I know, and she's got, like, a crazy expense, like a $2,000, $3,000, you know, diamonds and jewels and just, like, catches your eye, necklace on, and you're like, oh, wow, that's cool. Necklace. Where did you get that? And imagine that that woman, who is not my wife, says, oh, yeah, C.J. bought me this for my birthday.
[00:05:27] I feel weird even saying that because it sounds like I'm describing an affair, right?
[00:05:33] You would know that that's a red flag, right? Please say yes.
[00:05:37] If you don't know that's a red flag, then please, let's talk later.
[00:05:41] That would be a red flag. Here's why.
[00:05:44] Resources indicate relationships.
[00:05:49] Resources indicate relationships. Relationships follow resources, right?
[00:05:57] So if you looked at me and you said, man, C.J. you're spending a lot of money on that woman, and you're not married to her, and you're not spending a lot of money on your wife, you would intuitively know that that's a problem, right? Because this is something that we don't need explained to us. It's something that we just naturally understand. We look at the world around us, and you don't even need someone to explain to you why that's a problem. We just know deep down that that's a problem. We know deep down that resources follow relationships. That's what's going on in the story of Cain and Abel. Resources indicate heart condition.
[00:06:37] If you and I printed off our credit card statements and we swapped, you could tell what I care about, and I could tell what you care about.
[00:06:45] Because resources indicate relationships, right? So when you look at the story of Cain and Abel, you're looking at a story about heart posture.
[00:06:53] Because they're using resources. Now, they didn't have money back then. They used a different resource. That was their flocks and their livestock and their produce. But their resources indicated their relationship. Jesus, a few thousand years later, is talking about the exact same principle in Matthew 6. He summarizing the thing introduced to us in chapter four of the Bible in the story of Cain and abel. In Matthew 6, he says this.
[00:07:20] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
[00:07:26] Why? Because resources indicate relationship. We actually have a phrase for this in our culture that we don't realize is going directly back to the Bible. But it is what we say is follow the money.
[00:07:42] If you follow the money, you find out where the loyalty is, right? If you follow the money, you find out where the values are. We understand this we look around the world and we understand that where you see the money being spent, that that's where you find the root of the issue.
[00:08:01] Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
[00:08:07] Now here's what's important with the story of Cain and Abel. We are four chapters into the Bible.
[00:08:13] This is the second generation of humans and already resources, money, causes, division.
[00:08:24] Do you want to know why God talks about money in the Bible more than he talks about just about anything else?
[00:08:31] Because one generation into the human story, it was already driving families apart.
[00:08:39] The first 11 chapters of the Bible read like the series Yellowstone. They read like Taylor Sheridan wrote it. Why? Because it's families fighting over resources.
[00:08:50] It starts off as a family in a garden with the abundance of God's provision. And then it becomes competitors killing each other over what's left when they step outside of the provision of the Lord.
[00:09:04] Now, there are a couple of things that we have to notice about this story that are really important. Here's the first one.
[00:09:10] God never asked for a gift. Did you notice that God never asked for a gift? Hopefully this doesn't surprise you. God doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our resources. He is not hungry. He did not need the livestock from Abel. He did not need the produce from Cain.
[00:09:28] He never asked for it.
[00:09:30] Here's why that's important. Because Cain and Abel both, something about their relationship with God indicated to them that they should bring a gift.
[00:09:41] Right? That's why when your spouse says, oh, I don't need anything for my birthday. Yeah, you get something anyway. Right?
[00:09:48] Because something about the relationship indicates a priority.
[00:09:53] Right?
[00:09:55] Cain and Abel knew there was something about the fact that they were. They knew God, that they knew him well, that indicated what they should do with their resources. Why? Because resources indicate relationship.
[00:10:09] Resources drive relationship, relationship follows resources. That's what we see right here in Cain and Abel. They both bring something to God because of the relationship they had. Now here's the second thing that is incredibly important to see in the story.
[00:10:25] God didn't reject Cain's offering. Did you notice that God didn't look at Cain and say, get that out of my face?
[00:10:34] No, it only says that God looked with favor on Abel's offering and not on Cain's offering. God didn't reject. God wasn't angry or disappointed at Cain's offering, but he favored Abel's offering. Here's a good way to think about this. Imagine that it's your birthday and you've got two friends that both get you a gift. Now here's what I want you to imagine. One of them gives you a $50Amazon gift card. That is a wonderful gift, by the way. I think gift cards are wonderful gifts because you can't accidentally pay your phone bill with a gift card. You have to buy something fun with it, Right? It's great. You buy me a gift card to Sportsman's Warehouse, I will buy ammunition and be happy. Right?
[00:11:14] So you get a $50Amazon gift card. That's a great gift, right?
[00:11:18] Wonderful gift. You wouldn't be disappointed in that. But I want you to imagine that the other friend had been paying attention six months ago when you were talking about that band, that was your favorite band in college, and you always wanted to see them, but you didn't get to. And their last tour, you had had tickets to go see them live, but your car broke down and you weren't able to go to the concert. Right? You missed it. So what did that friend do? That friend took 50 bucks, same amount. But they went on ebay and they found you a signed record from that band and they found you a T shirt from that tour.
[00:11:54] Which gift do you look with favor on?
[00:11:57] The one that shows relationship. Right?
[00:12:00] The one that shows the person was paying attention because the use of resources indicated the relationship. It wasn't necessarily about just what was worth more. It was about what was indicated in the relationship with the gift. That's the difference between Cain and Abel's offering. Cain brings something to God. That's fine. God wasn't upset.
[00:12:21] But Cable brought some of the fat portions of the first fruit he bought. He brought the best. It represents a different heart posture. It represents a different perspective. Their heart and their relationship towards God was different. And that's indicated by the way they used their resources, because resources indicate relationship.
[00:12:48] Now, what happens immediately after.
[00:12:50] Once again, it seems surprising that almost immediately after Cain kills Abel, that seems like an escalation a little bit. But it's what happens now that seems shocking until you just start watching the news and you realize how many times somebody does kill somebody else over resources, right? How many times money or power or some sort of resource gets in the way of a relationship and families divide.
[00:13:18] Cain kills Abel. Why?
[00:13:21] Because there's a resource that resources the favor of God.
[00:13:25] And now Cain looks at Abel and he says, you're in the way of me getting what I need.
[00:13:33] Cain is viewing a limited resource.
[00:13:37] Cain's perspective is not.
[00:13:40] My resources indicate my relationship with God. Cain's perspective is, abel got what I wanted and I can't get it If Abel has it, do you see the difference there?
[00:13:54] So Abel, instead of becoming a brother, becomes a competitor.
[00:13:58] And Cain takes him out. Cain gets him out of the way.
[00:14:02] What we're talking about here is what Bible teachers, some theologians call an abundance versus scarcity perspective.
[00:14:10] Abundance versus scarcity.
[00:14:13] Abel looks at the world and looks at God as the provider. So Abel is looking at the world around him and he is still remembering the garden. And I'm reading between the lines in the story a little bit here, but we're in Genesis chapter four. So Abel's still living with the garden in his mind. He's still seeing the God who created everything.
[00:14:30] So Abel isn't looking at his flocks and saying, if I give the best portion, I'll never get it back. He's not looking at his flocks and saying, I have to keep this for myself.
[00:14:40] He's saying God has an abundance. Cain is saying, I should give God something, but I'm not going to give him everything.
[00:14:52] Why?
[00:14:53] I'm not going to give him generously. Why? Because I have to keep for myself. Cain is looking at the world as if there's scarcity, but there's not enough.
[00:15:01] Abel is looking at the world as if there's an abundance. God is the provider. And if God is the provider, then there's plenty. That's a completely different perspective. And we see Cain's scarcity mindset play out when he kills Abel. Why? Because he believes God's favor is scarce and Abel is the competition. An abundance perspective is like this. Abundance says that God will provide enough so that I do not have to compete or hoard.
[00:15:31] So if my perspective in life is rooted in God as the provider, like Abel, or like Jesus, where your treasure is, there your heart is, then my worldview, the way I view God, the world, myself, everything else is anchored in the fact that God provides enough, that God is the one that I work hard. Why? Because I'm supposed to. Because God tells me to. In fact, the Bible is full of instructions to work hard, save, invest, make the most of your money.
[00:15:59] Scripture is full of instructions for how we are supposed to even build wealth, right? Scripture tells us to do that and tells us how to do it. But there's a difference. If my perspective is anchored in God as the giver, then I work hard because I should. And I'm a good steward because it's right. But I understand that I am not the primary one getting everything for myself, that God is the giver. The book of James says that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no shifting shadow. So every good and perfect gift comes from him. That's in a perspective of abundance, which means if there's enough and God's the one who gives it, then you're not in my way because you're not the one I have to get it from. You see the difference?
[00:16:48] Do you see the difference?
[00:16:50] If God is the provider and I am working because he's good and he will give, then you're not the competition.
[00:17:00] So you don't have to get out of the way.
[00:17:03] We're not competing. I don't have to win over you. I don't have to beat you at life because there's enough to go around. But scarcity, on the other hand, scarcity says there's not enough.
[00:17:15] So everybody's a competitor, right? This is what happens when three friends hang out, and at the beginning of the evening, all these dudes, they're just friends, they're just bros. And then all of a sudden, one cute girl shows up and there's only one number, but there's three guys. Now it's competition, right?
[00:17:32] Because there's not enough to go around, the resource is scarce.
[00:17:36] So everybody that you were just hanging out with is now dead to you until this competition's over.
[00:17:43] Scarcity. Cain has a scarcity perspective. And if you read. I said this before, if you read the next seven chapters of Genesis, it reads like Yellowstone. Like the show. It's a family that starts unified, that starts together, and then they start competing over limited resources. And a family living in the abundance of God becomes warring tribes competing for limited resources. God tells us this. This is the state of humanity once again. We don't have to have this.
[00:18:14] We don't have to be persuaded of this. Look at the world around us and you can see this over and over and over again. This is why every corruption scandal you find out about is sex and money. This is why the.
[00:18:25] The average married couple. Do you know, statistically speaking, what the average married couple argues about? Sex and money, Those two things.
[00:18:33] This is when we look at strife all over the world. This is why we have a phrase like follow the money. Because when we see a limited resource, we start dividing over it. And the only antidote to that competition is abundance. The only antidote is seeing that God is the provider.
[00:18:51] So what does God do to respond to this reality? What does he do? He institutes something called the tithe. And some of you guys are like, I knew it. I knew we were getting here.
[00:19:06] God institutes Something called the tithe.
[00:19:09] What he does is he tells his people to bring the first 10% of what they receive and to give it to the Lord through their local community. In the Old Testament, they brought it to the priests, and the money funded the priests and the spiritual life of the community and was used to meet some of the needs of the poor in the community. In the early church, they brought it to the prophet or to the synagogue. Throughout church history, it's been brought to the local church. Why did God institute this? Because abundance is freedom.
[00:19:41] Abundance is freedom and abundance is trust. And the only way to have an abundance perspective is to practice trust.
[00:19:49] It's to practice trust. So God institutes this expectation that we would give the first 10% away. Why? Because if I look at $100 and I say, the first $10 goes to God, then I have to trust him because I'm not keeping everything for myself. Do you see that?
[00:20:06] It forces me to say, I could do more, but God is my provider, so I'll trust him. It's the practice of freedom. Abundance is freedom. Living in abundance perspective is living in freedom. It doesn't mean that like, fills your bank accounts. Look, you can pray all you want for God to make you rich. I've tried. It hasn't worked yet. But abundance is not about having abundant resources myself. It's about looking at God and saying, because he has abundance, I can trust him.
[00:20:38] I can trust him. The practice of generosity is the practice of abundance. Because what it's doing is it's forcing me to look at my resources and say, I don't need it all. Because provider, because he's the provider. Abundance is trust. Abundance is freedom.
[00:21:00] For years, every time I preach about money, first off, I hate it because it always kind of feels like I kicked somebody's dog.
[00:21:13] Every time I would start preaching about money, I would say something along the lines of, guys, this is my least favorite thing to talk about in church. It's my least favorite thing. I hate talking about money. The Bible just talks about money a lot, so we have to talk about it.
[00:21:27] And usually I would say something along the lines of, I would rather preach about gender identity, abortion, politics, and every other controversial thing in the same sermon than preach one sermon about money. Because I genuinely don't like doing it. But as I was preparing for this sermon, I realized something.
[00:21:42] If I actually believe that this is true, I gotta quit apologizing for preaching about money.
[00:21:50] Because God talks about money more than he talks about almost anything else in the Bible.
[00:21:54] Money enters the story in Genesis 4, second generation of humans. Money is already dividing people, which means there's something about freedom and my experience of God's goodness that's actually tied to the way that I treat my resources. And if I don't learn to trust God with my resources, I will not learn to live in his abundance and generosity.
[00:22:20] In other words, part of becoming who I was created to be is learning to give, to serve with my resources. It's learning to trust him financially. And it's uncomfortable. Why is it uncomfortable? Because all the way back to Cain and Abel, we've been trying to control it.
[00:22:38] But when I learn to give, when I learn to live in generosity, I find freedom in a way that I cannot find in any other way.
[00:22:49] I can't find it in any other way. It's a gift.
[00:22:53] You know, a few. Few weeks ago, we talked about how at Hope of Life International that they do child rescues. And I came to you and I said, every once in a while, we're going to come do a. We're going to come do a offering so that we can fund. It's $1,500 to pay to rescue a malnourished child, a child that would probably die.
[00:23:12] Well, this past week, somebody came to the church and said, I want to fund a child rescue. I'm going to write a check.
[00:23:20] So we've already saved the first child through Hope of Life because somebody. Yeah, we should. We should be clapping about.
[00:23:31] But that's the thing. When we're talking about generosity, yes, we're talking about the lights in the church and staff and buildings. And we're also talking about babies getting saved and lives getting changed and people hearing the gospel who don't know it, and kids downstairs hearing that they're part of God's big story. And teens who are over in the West Wing hearing about the gospel and churches being planted. Three churches out of new life that have been planted. That's people who wouldn't have known about Christ if they weren't sent. What we're talking about is something that actually makes a difference. And the crazy thing is that God didn't just create tithing and generosity to fund the church. Look, if we were just trying to make money as a church, there are better ways to do it than the nonprofit model, for sure. But God decided to fund his mission through generosity. He decided to fund it in a way that unhitches our hearts from dependency on materialism, that unhitches our hearts from the chains and shackles of competition and attaches us to the generosity do you see that? God, that's how and why he did it. Because it's something that we need. It's a practice we need. And first off, God is abundantly generous to us.
[00:24:42] God is abundantly generous to us. God gave his one and only Son so that we could be reconciled to him, so that we could be forgiven. Did you know God never asks you to do something he doesn't also do?
[00:24:55] He doesn't ask us to be generous if he won't be generous.
[00:25:00] Instead, he gives his highest, best resource.
[00:25:04] It told us that Abel brought some of the firstborn of the fat portions of his livestock.
[00:25:11] Well, God gave his firstborn son.
[00:25:15] Jesus was the better able whose sacrifice forgives sins.
[00:25:19] The story of Jesus actually ties us all the way back to the first conversation about resources because it anchors us in the freedom of abundance, that God abundantly loves us. He's abundantly generous to us. And that doesn't mean he's going to make you rich, but it does mean that he is the provider and that the best way to live is to live independence and trust with Him.
[00:25:41] Generosity reveals a free heart. When I can give, it reveals that my heart is free.
[00:25:49] So as we wrap up today, I want to say two things.
[00:25:53] One is something I just want to say, and the second is the call to action. And the first one is something that I am not supposed to say as a pastor. And some of you guys are thinking, cj, you do that every week. So we are not surprised anymore.
[00:26:09] If you are sitting here and you are thinking, cj, I knew it. The church is just all about money.
[00:26:14] Look at the lights, look at the state, look at the building. Church is just about money.
[00:26:18] I get that. I understand why you might feel that way. Honestly, I do.
[00:26:23] And if you're thinking, look, maybe I am supposed to give, but I'm not going to give, if you're asking me to give, I'm not going to give. While you're talking about it, I get it, okay? I understand that. I understand why you would feel that way. I really do. So this is what I want to tell you to do. If that's you and you're saying, look, maybe I should give, but I'm not going to give at the church asking me to give, then what I want you to do is I want you to open up Google Maps on your phone and type in churches. I just want you to find a different church in Gillette or in Campbell county, go to their website, click on the giving tab, and start giving there. You can keep attending here but give there because it's not about new life getting your money.
[00:27:01] It's about us, you and me, experiencing the practice of abundance. All right, look, we have a mission. We believe as a church, God has called us to saturate Gillette with the gospel. 3500 people being discipled actively by regularly attending this church. We believe that 1 in 10 people in Gillette who we know are living their life on mission and sharing the gospel. You know what that means? It means nobody in Campbell county who doesn't have someone actively praying for them, inviting them to church. We are praying and believing for gospel saturation in Gillette. And that's going to require resources. That's going to require some giving. But it's way more important for you and I to have the practice of God's abundance, to experience a free heart. It's way more important for us to have a free heart than it is for new life to have a larger budget. So if you don't want to give to a church that's asking you to give, then give to Blessings in a backpack. Give to the Women's Resource center, give to the Salvation army, give to a different church in Gillette. That's totally fine. Start by giving and experience the freedom of abundance. And then decide whether we're just trying to get people's money or whether we actually believe that all the way back to the beginning of creation, when God invented humans, that resources have been trying to kill us, they've been trying to pull us apart, they've been trying to divide us and that God is trying to fix that.
[00:28:17] He's trying to reattach our hearts to his abundance through the practice of generosity.
[00:28:23] That's the first thing I want to tell you. Here's the second thing. Today I'm not asking anybody to give. That is not the call to action in this sermon.
[00:28:31] This is a four week series on generosity that will come, but it is not today.
[00:28:39] Here's what I want to ask you to do today. I want to ask you to ask yourself this question right here.
[00:28:45] What do your resources tell you about your heart?
[00:28:50] If it is true that resources indicate relationships, if it is true that where my treasure is, there my heart is, then I want you to ask a tough question.
[00:29:04] What do your resources tell you about your heart?
[00:29:07] Do your resources tell you that you live in the abundance of God? And look, I'm not talking about a number in there.
[00:29:15] It's not a number. It's not the amount in the savings account that tells you whether you live in abundance. It's how we use it. When you look at your resources, when you look at your bank statement, when you look at your credit card statement, does it tell you that you trust in the abundant generosity of God?
[00:29:33] Or does it tell you that you live in a world of scarcity where you feel like you have to hold and hoard and keep everything from yourself, for yourself and everyone else's competition? Do your resources tell you that other people are in the way and you have to hold back? Or do your resources tell you that God is the provider and he's given enough so you don't have to live in fear and in competition?
[00:29:55] What do your resources tell you about your heart?
[00:29:59] Let's pray.
[00:30:02] Jesus, you are good and kind and faithful and generous to us. And you are generous above everything and beyond everything. You are generous to us when we do not deserve it. You are generous to us when we can't deserve it.
[00:30:15] We thank you for that, Jesus. Would you set us free from the slavery of scarcity?
[00:30:27] Would you set us free from that? That we would not have to view the world as if there's not enough to go around? But would you set our minds on you and on your abundance and on your kindness and on your generosity, that we would trust you in everything?
[00:30:42] Love you, Jesus.
[00:30:44] Amen.
