Lord, we pray, we thank You for Your Word, and we pray for Your blessing over the teaching and the hearing of Your Word today. Amen.
Well, church, it may surprise you to learn that I had a brief career as a commercial actor. I don't understand why you're laughing. This is— that's not the response you hope for. You hope for like, hmm, I can see it. No, this— The laughter is concerning. I had a brief career as a commercial actor in that my career consisted of one total commercial I did as a kid. And I was in a commercial with my family and my job in the commercial was to point to a model of a theater and look amazed. You know, I remember the guy with the big camera was like, no, just be amazed. I'm like, okay. And he's like, no, more amazed. You know, and so I think I nailed it. And later on, I asked my dad, what was that commercial even for? And he explained that he was involved with the El Paso Community Foundation and they were involved with trying to save the Plaza Theater downtown. It had dwindled over the years. It was about to be demolished and turned literally into a parking lot when the city kind of came together to save it. But now they were trying to actually restore the theater. And my dad explained, this is gonna be very expensive. This is gonna take a lot of work, but he thought this is gonna be a great thing thing for the city. And he was talking about all these plans, you know, we're hoping to do this and hoping to do that. And it's going to be so great, mijo. And, and I must admit something to you. I was not impressed at the time because if I remember at that point in time, all I really wished my dad would focus on was getting us a pool. I had friends, I had friends that had pools and I'm like, man, it's so cool. They can swim whenever they want. And I remember my dad saying, well, maybe someday we'll get a pool. And I remember thinking, I think you're putting your energies in the wrong place, Dad. Why are you putting your energies in this weird theater downtown that's halfway demolished when you should be thinking about us and our home and the long days we can enjoy by the pool in the hot summers?
Now, of course, of course, I am very happy today that I was proved wrong. The Plaza Theater did indeed reopen and reopen as one of the greatest theaters in North America and perhaps around the world from a artistic, historical, cultural point of view. But that tension, that tension between, but what about our house, comes out anytime we begin to think about money and generosity. Where we go is, okay, sure, but what about us? What about me?
And so here's the question I wanna answer today. Why live a life of generosity thinking about out there when our default is often to think, what about in here? What about my life? Now, coupled with that, there's a bunch of questions. Is generosity worth it? Okay, how much charitable giving do I really have to do? What about my own needs? What about my savings? What about debt? Why should I help others? It doesn't look like others are helping me. Why should I be generous to them? I haven't really been a recipient of others' generosity. And so the Bible takes that question, why live a generous life? And it answers with a different question. And the question we're gonna ask today is, who are you?
Why live a life of generosity? The Bible asks, well, who are you? And we're gonna look at that in several sections today. The first is a new identity. Now we're gonna look at it through the lens of Genesis 12 and the call of Abram. And look at verse 1 again, the Lord said to Abram, go from your country, your kindred, your father's house, to the land I will show you.
Now notice something. In Genesis 12, Abraham is just like the rest of humanity. We think of Abraham, well, he's the father of the Jewish nation. No, at this point, he is a pagan man in a pagan land doing pagan stuff. Humanity's story lands with Abram because in the beginning, God created this beautiful garden, this beautiful land, but humanity in God's place, in God's land, rejected God. And as a result of humanity saying, we don't want you, we're gonna be our own gods, God removed them from the garden. And so they go from God's land out to the wasteland. And Genesis 3 through 11 is this devolution into further and further wasteland life. We arrive in Genesis 11, which is the Tower of Babel section, right, where humanity finally comes together for a brief moment, but not around good things, around trying to make their own name great and put everyone else to shame and claim authority like God in heaven. And then God again confounds their language and sends them back into the wastes. That's where we find Abram.
6 · The pastor asserts that God's promise of a new land to Abram is unprecedented in Genesis after the Fall and represents a redemptive echo of the lost Garden of Eden
Now, that's why what happens to Abram is unique and surprising and beautiful. For the first time, we get a promise in Genesis that God has a land, a new land for his people. The literal language is, is go from your land to my land, your land to a new land. This is an echo of the Garden of Eden, the garden that humanity lost. God calls his people out from where they are into a new land.
7 · The pastor exposits Genesis 12:2, showing that along with a new land comes a new identity for Abram—he will be made into a great nation, blessed, and given a great name by God
And then notice when that happens, 2 things are going to be restored. Not only will there be a new land, a new place, a new homeland, but they will also— Abram will also receive a new identity. Look at verse 2, I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be A blessing.
8 · The pastor asserts that God's call gives Abram a fundamentally new identity that supersedes all earthly identities—defined vertically by relationship to God rather than horizontally by place, family, or work
Now we tend to define our identity based on our relationships to all kinds of things around us, right? Abram would say, I'm Abram from Ur. I'm Abram this guy's son, right? Similarly, we today, if somebody goes, who are you? We're casting around for something to reference, to, to, to see our identity in reference to. Well, I'm from this place. Or, or I work for this company, or I'm on the rec team with these people, or I'm married to this person, or I'm the parent of this person, the son of this person. That's the way Abram would have been identified. Yet God, in a sense, gives him a totally different identity, an identity that, that supersedes all other identities that Abram has. All of a sudden, he's defined not in relationship to his family or in his work, or to his city, but he is redefined by his relationship to God. All of his horizontal relationship with people around him is redefined by his vertical relationship to God. He's not Abraham of Ur, of the Urites. He is Abram, one of God's people and his new land.
9 · The pastor explains that the most surprising element of God's promise to Abram is blessing (shalom/wholeness), which had been lost since the Fall in Genesis 3
Now, here's the most surprising thing though about this new land and this new identity, especially in light of Genesis 3 through 11. His identity is that he will be blessed. Do you see that? I will bless you, right? The blessing in a sense dried up in Genesis after the fall in Genesis 3. All of a sudden the blessing, and the word blessing in Hebrew, shalom, means wholeness. It means things as they should be, right? In relationship to God, to others, to the world around us, that wholeness, that shalom, that peace, It's that blessing. It's like when humanity pursued sin, all of it dried up, but God is saying, no, no, no, no, no. You have a new land, you have a new identity, and it will be defined by blessing. Blessing once lost is being re-given in this moment.
10 · The pastor applies the exposition of Abram's identity to the congregation's relationship with money: if Christians have received a new identity and blessing from God, they should think about money and possessions radically differently than non-Christians who are still grasping for identity and blessing in the wasteland
Now you might say, okay, well, why does that matter to whether I give to anything? Well, I say all that to make a very simple point. If this is true of God's people, if this is true of Abram, if this is true of us, then our relationship to the world around us as God's people, our identity in relationship to the world around us, and our relationship to our money and possessions must radically change. Christians should not think about money, possessions, or life the same way that everyone around us does. Because those around us are thinking like they're in the wasteland. Thinking like they're grasping for some place to find their identity. But God's people, like Abram here, have been given this identity, given this blessing. And so they're no longer going, okay, I'm chasing the same things everyone else is. They're receiving this new land of promise, this new identity, and this blessing from God.
11 · The pastor uses a story from another pastor to illustrate that while conversion is a single event, the lordship of Christ often takes time to reach different areas of life, with finances typically being the last area Christians surrender to God's authority
I remember talking to a pastor one time that joked that Christian life really is a series of conversions. Now, obviously there's only one definitive conversion where we go from death to life, we go from not following Jesus to following Jesus, right? But he would joke that, that often it takes quite a long time for Christians to get converted in every area of their life, right? Somebody could say amen to this. If you've been a non-Christian and then you become a Christian and then you realize it takes a minute maybe for your dating life to get converted, you're like, oh, that too? Okay. You know, or it takes a minute for your speech to get converted. The way you talk. But this pastor joked that often the last conversion of the Christian is the conversion of their checkbook, right? The conversion of their bank account. It's like, yeah, I'll even give my dating life and my speech up before I'll give up that, before somebody tells me how to spend my money.
12 · The pastor asserts that God's call to Abram was comprehensive—it demanded total rather than partial obedience, requiring leaving everything behind to receive the new identity God offered
And yet, you see the difference here. For Abram, it wasn't a partial call out of something to something else. It was a whole call. It wasn't as though Abram could go, well, I'm happy to be your people, but I kind of want to stay where I am over here. I kind of like Ur. I kind of like being— no, no, no, no. It's all or nothing. It's, you're coming into a new identity as a people of God.
13 · The pastor signals a structural shift from the first major point (new identity) to the second major point (new purpose)
So new identity. Second, a new purpose.
14 · The pastor exposits Genesis 12:2-3, showing that God's blessing of Abram has a stated purpose: Abram is blessed so that he will be a blessing to others
Look at this. I will bless you so that what? Why? Why is he being blessed? I will bless you so that you will be a blessing. I will bless you, those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now I love this because a lot of times we're stingy, we're holding on to our money and possessions and life 'cause we're like, well, I gotta take care of myself. And the Lord basically in verse 3 says, listen, I'll take care of you. I'm gonna take care of who's gonna bless you. I'm gonna take care of who's cursing you. Let me deal with that. But your purpose is I'm gonna bless you so that you will be a blessing.
15 · The pastor contrasts Babel (Genesis 11), where humanity gathered to make their own name great, with Genesis 12, where Abram is sent out to make others blessed—reversing the self-exalting movement of Babel with the other-blessing movement of God's call
Abram is brought into this specific role. This identity has a new role. And that new role is being a blessing to others. Now notice the contrast between Genesis 11 and Genesis 12 here. Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel, everybody comes together in a sense to make their name great, to say, I'm the best, right? And you can always get a lot of people together to do that. What's the one thing we all agree on? That we're the best. Like, great, I'm in, let's go, right? And yet God goes, no, no, no, there's no life, there's only judgment there. But Genesis 12 is the opposite motion. Rather than coming together to exalt yourself, Abram is sent and scattered to bring blessing to others.
16 · The pastor uses the water exhibit at La Nube Children's Museum as an analogy: just as the water flows through pipes and funnels to reach different places, Abram is meant to be a conduit through which God's blessing flows to others, not a stopping point that hoards the blessing
Now, counterintuitive, isn't it? Now, who's been to the La Nube Children's Museum? 'Cause this is gonna really depend on that. Okay, a decent portion of you. You're gonna have to explain to your neighbor if you haven't been. But at La Nube, they have this great exhibit with water to show kids how water flows and connections are made. And so there's water coming down on one side of the wall, And you can use sort of pipes and funnels and other shapes to direct the water, right? So it's fun because the water is falling here and kids are so creative and inventive that they'll do all these things to get the water to flow here and there and here, all the way to the other side of the wall. And it's great, right? Now think of it this way. Abram is meant to be one of those pieces. Abram is meant to receive the blessing of God and through him flow or direct that blessing to others. Abram's not meant to just sit there and enjoy the water like, ah, this is great, right? Love this. Best place to be in El Paso in the summer. It's right here. And yet, no, no, no. Abram, you're to be blessed so that you can direct the blessing of God to others.
17 · The pastor exposits the scope of Abram's mission: the blessing is to reach all nations and families of the earth, reversing Babel's scattering by bringing all peoples back together into God through the spread of blessing
Second, notice the scope of where Abram is to direct the blessing. The scope is to bless the whole world and all nations. Again, the reversal of the Tower of Babel. Warped humanity is all about themselves, so God confuses their languages and they return to their corners of the wasteland. But God's people are to be scattered to the nations in order to bring the nations back together into God's Abram is sent. The mission starts here and it extends to every continent and every people. And there is no more powerful and beautiful and ambitious mission in the world around us than directing the blessing of God to people.
18 · The pastor articulates the concept of stewardship: Abram receives blessing not to dispose of as he wishes but to steward for God's purposes
Third thing we see here, Abraham is sent with a stewardship. To turn the blessing he did not earn toward others for the purposes of God. Abram does not get to decide what he wants to do with the blessing of God, right? It's not as though God's like, I'm gonna give you this blessing and just kind of do whatever. Like, really? Great. No, no, no, it's, I'm gonna give you this blessing. I am blessing you, but you are stewarding that blessing to carry it to others. And this is— this stewardship language is very common, especially in the New Testament. Testament, Jesus' parables over and over and over give us the picture of stewardship, that we're not the guy, the wealthy man, we are the money manager managing the wealth that we enjoy part of, but we use it for the purposes of the one who gave it to us. So the question then is, well, if God gave us this blessing and he's directing this blessing, it's not what do we wanna do with God's blessing, it is what does God want to do with his blessing? That's the key question.
19 · The pastor illustrates the distinction between faithful stewardship and embezzlement using Bernie Madoff as an example: the difference between Madoff and a faithful money manager is not in receiving the money but in whether they direct it according to the owner's purposes or their own
Think about Bernie Madoff for a minute, right? Our old friend Bernie Madoff swindled millions of dollars and thousands of people. What's the difference between Bernie Madoff and a decent money manager? Okay? Right, well, jail time, that's a good one, yeah. One of them's in jail. And the question is why? Why is Bernie in jail? It's not just that he's get caught. Look, both Bernie and a money manager know how to receive the money, don't they? Right? He took the money. Good money manager, you give them the money, right? Bernie, you sign over rights for him to do things with the money. Good money manager, you sign over the rights for them to do things with the money. What's the difference? The difference is where that money gets directed. And who it's directed by. Bernie receives the money, right? Any con man receives the money and then decides, I'm going to direct the money toward myself for my purposes. But a good money manager says, what do you want to do with your money? And I'll direct your money toward those purposes. Do you see the difference? Friends, I think when it comes to the blessing of God, we are often much closer to Bernie than we would want to admit. Because so often we're like, okay, God, thank you for the blessings, awesome. And he's like, I have purposes for those. And we're like, thank you, I got it from here, right? I'm going to use it for, for me. I think you gave these to me, right? Great, perfect, got it. And the Lord's like, no, no, it's, it's to go there. Abram's blessing is to flow where God has directed
20 · The pastor applies the stewardship principle comprehensively: everything Christians have—life, breath, money, possessions, jobs, privileges, family—is given by God as stewardship, so the governing question is what God wants to do with what He's given us
So here's the summary then. If all this is true, then our relationship to money and possessions must radically change. All that God has given us then is given as stewardship. Friends, God has given us our life, our existence, our breath. He has given us our money and our possessions. He's given us our job. He's given us our privileges. He's given us the blessings of our family. He's given us everything in life. As we open the service, every good and perfect gift comes from above. Therefore, the key question is, what does God want to do with what he's given to me? That's the key question.
21 · The pastor uses a story about his children building dams in a creek to illustrate the human tendency to hoard blessing rather than let it flow to others
Now, here's the challenge though. We have to keep fighting because we're a little bit like— when this happens, we're a little bit like my kids at the creek in Ruidoso, right? We were up in Ruidoso recently and there was a little spot we could access the creek and the kids loved— I don't know how they got in on this, but they were like, Let's build pools. Right, and so what they started doing is damming up little sections of the creek to make these pools. And then they would like try to surround the pool and fill the pool and direct the water around the pool. And I remember asking them, but what hap— and they kept building dams in front of the water, right? And at one point I asked one of them, like, what's gonna happen if you succeed? Like, you're gonna dam the water and it's gonna like start running up the banks. And then nobody down the river will get the water. And they just looked at me like, why do we care about them? Like, this is our water. We're right here, man. This is our pool. We're going to make more pools, right? And friends, isn't that the tension with all of us? The tension that Genesis 12 addresses is this tendency to build dams and try to create little pools of blessing where we soak in and enjoy, not to allow the Lord to direct that blessing where he chooses. And from the— notice this, from the very beginning of God's people, from the moment they are formed in Genesis 12, the Lord is saying the blessing of God is meant to flow to you, but through you for the purposes of God.
22 · The pastor signals a structural transition from the second major point (new purpose) to the third major point (a new king)
Third then, so that's a new identity, a new purpose. Third, a new king.
23 · The pastor traces redemption history from Genesis 12 through the Old Testament, showing that Abram and his descendants repeatedly failed to be the blessing-conduits God called them to be, repeatedly reverting to self-focused Tower-of-Babel patterns, resulting in another wasteland by the time of the New Testament
Now, Abram is meant to be this representative, this father of the people of God in a sense, and to allow the blessing of God to flow through him to his people and to the nations. And yet, spoiler alert, once you get past Genesis 12, actually you don't even get to the end of Genesis chapter 12 before Abraham starts failing. And then after him, his sons Isaac and Jacob continue to fail. And that continues and God is still faithful. He keeps his promises when God's people don't keep theirs. And finally God brings his people out of Egypt and they get into the promised land. And you think, finally, here it is, the land of blessing, the promised land. We're gonna recreate the Garden of Eden and God's blessing is gonna flow to these people and through them to the nations. And yet, God's people are beset with failures again. They just— look, here's what happens. They just keep going back over and over and over to Genesis 11 and rebuilding the Tower of Babel, of going, it's all about me. It's all about me. Here's the blessing. It's all about me, directing it to myself over and over and over. So when you arrive finally into the New Testament, the landscape is a wasteland yet again, just like at the end of Genesis 11.
24 · The pastor presents Jesus as the true and greater Abraham who perfectly fulfilled what Abraham was meant to be
But that's when the true and greater Abram arrives. The man who was the true and better version of what Abram was intended to be, the man Jesus Christ arrives. And here is what happens in Jesus' defining life moment. This most blessed man who ever lived, this man through whom blessing flowed wherever he went, whatever he touched, God's blessing flowed there. This blessed man is, instead of being applauded and rejoiced over, he is then crucified and treated not as blessed but as cursed. And on the cross he is very much treated as if he's being cast into the wasteland. And on the cross he is treated as if he was not God's people and God's wrath fell on Him, and He did this so that the blessed offered for the cursed might bear the curse for us, and we might in return receive yet again the blessing of God. On the cross, this Christ, this King of heaven is cast into the wasteland. So that in the wasteland of God's wrath, he would bear the curse for the people of God that he might bring them back to the Promised Land of God's people and God's place.
25 · The pastor makes the hermeneutical claim that Genesis 12 is ultimately about Jesus Christ, the true fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise, citing 2 Corinthians 5:21 and restating it in the language of blessing and curse
Oh friends, Genesis 12 is about Abram, but in another sense, Genesis 12 is about the true and greater Abram, Jesus Christ, who fully fulfilled the words of Genesis 12. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. You could say it this way, for our sake, he made him to be cursed who knew only blessing so that in him we might become blessed again.
26 · The pastor pauses to directly address non-Christians, evangelistically applying the sermon's content: they are seeking blessing and wholeness in money and possessions, but true blessing is found only in Christ
Now, friend, look, I wanna pause here because if you're not a Christian, you're not sure where you are with the Lord, nothing else I say is gonna matter a whole lot to you unless this lands for you. Because here's the reality, Jesus, your life is about seeking blessing whether you know it or not. You wanna be whole, you wanna be safe, you wanna be blessed, you wanna be put back together, right? And you're looking at all kinds of things for that. And one of the most common places our world looks for that is whatever money can buy. All right, you think the next income level, the next house, the next thing, the next savings account, whatever it is, the next raise, the next vacation, the next car, the next whatever, you think maybe there I'll find wholeness. And yet friends, as we just concluded our studies of Ecclesiastes, it ain't out there. It is not out there, but it is in here. The blessing and wholeness you're looking for is not out there. It is in the Son of God who allows the blessing of God to flow through you if you will receive Christ as your Savior and Lord. Today, things can change for you. You can go today from, I just hope someday I find it. I hope someday I'll find blessing and wholeness, to, no, I have found it. Oh friends, why won't you come to him today?
27 · The pastor articulates two results of receiving Christ as King: first, Christians no longer need what the world offers because they have received Christ's blessing; second, they receive Christ's kingship—His authority over their lives, including their finances
And then for those of us who are Christians, let's remember this. We come to Christ as our King and we find 2 things, right? One, we come to Christ as our King and we go, you know what? What the world offers out there, I no longer need because of what I've received in Christ, right? I am not grasping and straining. I'm not trying to— look, here's the— I'm not trying to build those dams and pools so I can finally be okay. I'm rejoicing just to be in the stream of God's blessing. Like, it is unfathomable what Christ has done for us and the blessing that has flowed to us in Christ through him as our King. And so we go, I'm good. When the world's like, we got stuff you need, the Christian goes, I'm good. There's nothing out there that I need. So we receive the blessing of Christ. And second, we receive then the kingship of Christ.
28 · The pastor addresses the prosperity gospel as heresy, arguing from Matthew 6 that no one can serve both God and money—they are mutually exclusive sources of blessing
Look, Jesus warns us in Matthew 6 that we should lay up treasures not on earth but in heaven because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And he ends that section by saying, no man can serve both God and money. Well, you can only look to one of them for your blessing and wholeness. Either you're looking to money for your blessing and wholeness or you're looking to Christ. Which is why, friends, hear me when I say this, the prosperity gospel is a damnable doctrine because it replaces Jesus Christ with money in its attempt to mix the two and say, oh, you know what? You can have Christ and money together. And Jesus himself says nobody can do that. Nobody serves two masters. But the reason the prosperity gospel is so egregious is that in the end, it leads to death and not life because it offers the death, the emptiness, the waste of money when what our hearts long for and need is Jesus.
29 · The pastor applies the kingship of Christ to finances by asking whether Christians will let Jesus determine how they think about money and possessions
And so friends, we receive the blessing of Christ and then we say, Lord, you're my King. I'm gonna bring this last conversion to you. You're gonna be in charge of my money too. You're gonna be in charge of my possessions too. So friends, will you let Jesus, this is one of the key questions of the Christian life. Will you let Jesus tell you how to think about money and possessions? Because you're gonna let somebody tell you. You're gonna let AI tell you. You're gonna let some Reddit forum tell you. You're gonna let some friend tell you. You're gonna let TikTok and Instagram videos tell you. How to think about money. And none of those have your best interests in mind. They're just trying to make money off of you. You know who's not trying to make money off of you? Jesus Christ. You know who needs absolutely nothing from you? Jesus Christ. You know who loved you so much he's going to die? He died for you. It's Jesus Christ. So he's the only one to listen to about this stuff.
30 · The pastor signals a structural transition from the third major point (new king) to the fourth major point (new kingdom)
All right, 4th and last, the new king, a new kingdom.
31 · The pastor exposits Matthew 28:18-20 in parallel with Genesis 12, showing that both passages contain the same structure: God promises to take care of His people while commissioning them to carry blessing to all nations
Now Jesus the king brings with him a new Kingdom. Now I wanna parallel at this point Genesis 12, you are blessed to be a blessing to all the nations, with Matthew 28. I want you to hear the echoes of this. Matthew 28, Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. All nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Look, yet again, the Lord says, look, I know you're gonna be worried about yourself. I know you're gonna be going, who's gonna take care care of me? Just like in Genesis 12, Jesus says, I'll take care of you, okay? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. I'm with you always. I've got you, Christian. I've got you, people of God. Therefore, as you have been blessed by me in relationship to me, you're then now to carry the blessing of God out into the nations, teaching them about the blessing of God, and bringing them into the family, which is this symbol of baptism, right? Do you see the parallels? Genesis 12 and Matthew 28 are very much the same commission from different perspectives of redemption history. The blessing of God flows to the church, to the people of God, that it might flow to the nations.
32 · The pastor shows that immediately after the gospel was preached in Acts 2, the early church experienced radical transformation in their relationship to money and possessions, characterized by explosive generosity rather than selfishness
Now, here's what happens immediately then after the gospel is preached, The church is formed. You know what happens to everybody's money and possessions? Radical transformation. Radical transformation. Right after Peter stands up in Acts 2 and preaches and says, here's Jesus, here's the blessing of God, you can get in on that. People are like, I'm in. You know what happens right after that? Not selfishness, but generosity. All of a sudden they're like, yeah, what do you guys need? Do you need something? Do you need something? All of a sudden, all the possessions, all the pocketbooks, open as generosity explodes into the church.
33 · The pastor shows that generosity is a consistent New Testament pattern extending beyond money to include gifts, abilities, skills, and even leaders being shared between churches, citing Ephesians 4 and Acts 11 and 13
This is a pattern over and over and over with everything in the Christian life. In Ephesians 4, the gifts and ability, the skill and skills that the church receives, it then uses and shares and uses to bless others. Even leaders, Acts 11 and 13, that what gets invested in one church in terms of leaders is then shared with other churches.
34 · The pastor exposits Ephesians 4's instruction to work, showing that Paul doesn't simply command work but provides gospel reasoning: Christians work so they can share with those in need, not to build private reserves of blessing
And my favorite little example of this is in Ephesians 4. Okay, in Ephesians 4, this gospel reasoning goes to work because there's a bunch of people in Ephesus that don't want to work. Okay, they're like, I don't need to work, I don't need a job, just waiting for Jesus to come back. Or like, I'm fine, you know, my parents or somebody will take care of me. And notice the way Paul argues them out of that. He says, you— he doesn't just say, Stop it, go to work. He says you should work so that you may have something to share with anyone in need. You see the gospel reasoning there? You've been given gifts, talents, abilities. Yeah, you should go to work. Why? So that you can build the little dam of blessing, the little pool of blessing? No, so that you then can share with those around you.
35 · The pastor asserts that despite legitimate criticisms of the church, Christians remain the biggest givers across all demographics and religions—a pattern of radical countercultural generosity that has persisted since Acts 2
Did you know that actually today, I just looked this up this morning, that today, even right now, Christians are still, 2,000 years later, Christians are still the biggest givers across all groups, all religions, and all demographics, right? The church rightly receives its share of criticism for things, but do you know what's been a consistent thread since the beginning of the church in Acts chapter 2? Radical countercultural generosity.
36 · The pastor asserts that Christians are invited to build Jesus' eternal kingdom—a kingdom where the lost are saved, the hurt healed, and the hopeless given hope
This is a new kingdom and Christian, in Christ you are invited into the work of building Jesus' kingdom. A new land as it were where the lost are saved, where the hurt are healed, where the hopeless find hope and this kingdom Jesus says does not and will not fade and it will not crumble And friends, we have one brief life to fulfill the trajectory of Genesis 12 and the trajectory of Matthew 28 and go out there and share the blessing of God that more might be gathered in here as God's people. Right? This is our heartbeat and has been since Matthew 28 and should have been since Genesis chapter 12. 12.
37 · The pastor confronts the congregation with the choice of what kingdom they are building with their resources
So here's my question for us today. What kingdom are you building? Everybody is building a kingdom with their life, with their possessions, with their money. What kingdom are you building with your job skills, with your gifts, with your abilities? Look, maybe you're tempted to build the kingdom of comfort, right? You just want to be comfortable. If everybody would just leave you alone for 5 minutes with the game on, life would finally be right. Like, maybe it's the kingdom of comfort, which is why, you know, when you see that ad of the new TV, you're like, hey, but I'm comfortable now, but I could be more comfortable if I could see Dak in high definition, if I could see the pores on his skin, then, you know, Maybe you're building the kingdom of comfort. Maybe you're building the kingdom of escape. Oh man, you just can't wait for that next trip, that next thing, that next experience, that next escape out there from normal life that you're, ah, then finally I'll build a kingdom of escape I can go to. Or this is mine, just putting my cards on the table. What about the kingdom of safety, right? You use all the finances and possessions you've got to buy better insurance or have more savings or build walls of finances financial security, as you think about all the scary scenarios of stock market crashes and real estate busts, and you think, okay, I need to have— I need to have— if I have safety, then I can finally sleep. I need a kingdom of safety. Or friends, will we hear the call of the Lord to build the kingdom of Jesus Christ? Will we say we trust you to worry about us and we will worry about taking your blessing and spreading it to others? That's the call.
38 · The pastor synthesizes the sermon's argument: the Bible answers 'why be generous?' by asking 'who are you?' The Christian's identity is as a blessed person with a new homeland in Christ
Now let me say this in conclusion. The Bible answers the question, why live a life of generosity, with another question. That question is, who are you? And the answer to the question, who are you, is this: I am blessed I have a new homeland and I have a new identity. That's who I am. I am a Christian. I am one of Christ's people. So then the final question today is this, do you relate to your money and possessions like a Christian or like the rest of the world? That is the journey we want to be on. We want to be able to look at the world and say, there's nothing out there I need. I've got the blessing of Christ and the promise of Christ in here. And also there's nothing that I can't and won't open my hands to offer to the Lord, whether it's my career, my money, my talents, whatever it is, it's the Lord's because it's who I am.
39 · The pastor steps aside from the sermon's main argument to address the congregation as their shepherd, explaining that he changed his plan for the conclusion
Now, I wanna give a couple notes on where we're going over the next few weeks. I had a bunch of things in my notes of like, here's some opportunities that we've got coming up to give toward the end of the year. I'm actually just gonna shuck that aside for a second, okay? As I was praying this morning, I just felt like the Lord said, you know what, we'll talk about that later. This is the primary, I think, target. That we would take our everyday life this week, our everyday spending, our everyday budget, our everyday patterns, and say, Lord, what do you think about that? What do you think about that, Lord? Look, this is my hope. If— my hope is this, that we would become better conformed to the pattern of the true and greater Abraham, Jesus Christ, who did not just hoard the blessing of God, but through Jesus it flowed to the world around us, that we would imitate him as his people in every area, And my prayer is this, that when we get to the end of these few weeks together thinking about generosity, that things would change not just on the ground and the way we spend and the way that we think about our possessions, but in our hearts. That our heart would truly be, Lord, I have been so immeasurably blessed, how might I then be a blessing to others? If that's the heart posture we land on, friends, I think the Word of God will have done It's work. Amen.
40 · The pastor returns to the Plaza Theater story, now focusing on the donor paving stones as an illustration of identity
Let me end with one final illustration about the Plaza Theater. I'm very happy, as I said, to have been proved wrong about the Plaza Theater. It proved a way better investment than getting a nicer pool or a new pool or a pool at all. But one of the things I love about the Plaza Theater is that in the beginning of the design, as people donated to it, they did this thing where you could could buy, you could donate and get a paving stone on the way into the theater. Have you guys seen these? You probably walked over them, the little names, right? Like all these little names and you're like, oh, there's random people. Okay, great, whatever. And you just walk into it. But I love the imagery of that because the people that donated toward that theater essentially paved the way for new people to be brought in, right? You literally walk over them on the way into the theater. And what I love about it is that among all that stuff, our family has one. And I love being able to point it out to my sons, my 3 sons, and go, see guys, this is who we are. This is who we are. This is who we wanna be as a family, the kind of family that blesses the city around us. Let's do this together, guys. It's a way to say, this is who we are.
41 · The pastor concludes by applying the paving stone imagery to the gospel itself: the gospel reached the congregation only because previous generations paved the way through their generosity, building churches, translating Bibles, and preaching
And friends, in a truer and greater way, the kingdom of Christ is laid out before us today. And I just want you to think about this as we end. The gospel that came to you, the gospel of Jesus Christ that came to you was paved by many, many others. The way the gospel got from the city of Jerusalem in the Middle East to the city of El Paso in the year of our Lord 2026, that is paved by the generosity and life and blood and lives of the Christians who came before us, those who built local churches, those who translated Bibles, those who preached the those who built local churches. Friends, the way the gospel got from Jesus Christ in Nazareth to you and changed your life was paved by the radical generosity of the church before you. And so then this is our challenge and our charge. Let it not end with us. Let us not be the Christian generation or the Christians who dam the stream, but rather let it flow through us to the purposes of God, that more might walk the paving stones of the gospel of Jesus Christ to be welcomed home. Amen.
42 · Closing prayer asking God to give the congregation a sense of the weight of blessing they have received in Christ, praying that before they think about being a blessing to others, they would first feel the blessing God has given them, and that their eyes would be lifted to God's blessing so they can be a blessing to others
Would you stand? Let's pray. Lord, I pray that as we end, You would give us a sense of the weight of blessing we have received as Christians. Lord, not only does our life and our heartbeat and the air in our lungs come from You, but everything about who we are as Christians comes because you have come to us and blessed us. Any part of our life that has been made right, any part of our life that has been healed and made whole, any part of us that has— was— that was once lost and has been found, or was once hopeless and now has hope, any of that, God, is your immense blessing that you have given to us. And so, Lord, I pray before we even go out and begin to think about how might we be a blessing to others, Lord, I pray that just for this moment you would allow us to feel the blessing of God that has come down. Lord, would you lift our eyes to your blessing that we might be a blessing to others? Help us as we sing.