NOV 4 2018 | SPENT S1E2 | Sacrificial Generosity

Sea Change Church · SPENT · "Sacrificial Generosity" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · November 4, 2018
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

We have a lot of talented people. If you didn't come to the harvest party, the guy has a voice like Simon and Garfunkel. I don't know which one, Simon or Garfunkel. I don't know, both together, juntos. All right, so I'm Joe Brandy. I'm going to read scripture. Proverbs 3, 9 through 10 is the first, and then we're getting into Isaiah. So Proverbs 3, 9 through 10 says, Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

Isaiah 61, 1 through 7. The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion. To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They'll be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins, and restore the places long devastated. They will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks. Foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord. You will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.

Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours. This is the word of the Lord. Right on. I don't know if they're going to be able to... You might not be able to get it up in time. Don't worry about it. Did anybody see the sunset Thursday? Yes. I thought about it a long time.

Because I'm a sunset chaser and a beauty chaser. I love... That's why I married my wife. Where is she? Points. Legit points right there. Totally true, though. I love beauty. And I remember... I tend to remember beautiful things and moments. And so before I got married, my friend said to me, he goes, hey, stop during the wedding. Like, forget what's happening. And like, feel it. Like, see it. And I remember, if you look in the video of our getting married, I'm just looking around at everything.

The ocean and the whole deal. So I've categorized all these beautiful days. And that was a gorgeous day. But I have to say, in regard to... We were out in the water surfing with a surf church, about six to eight of us out there. And it was like God was dropping gold coins on the water. And the sunset got brighter and brighter. It, like, rarely does it last as long as... It was like a half hour with different colors. I firmly believe it was...

And to be definitive, it was the most beautiful day of my life in regard to moment. It was 30 minutes long. And I thought of some beautiful moments. And this doesn't have to do with, like, hanging out with people. But just, like, God's creation and beauty speaking to us. It was like being in... I don't know. Like, it was a slice of heaven. It was amazing. So, it's cool. Because I went to the store afterwards. I said to this guy, he goes...

I said, hey, did you see the sunset? It was amazing. He goes, how do I see the sunset? He goes, I'm inside all day. What do you expect me to see? How am I going to see that? And I was like, oh, I'm sorry. I was just bringing it up, dude. Maybe you can walk the beach before you go to work, dude. I don't want to offend you, dude. So, he works all day and misses it. And I thought to myself, don't work all day. So, let me pray.

Jesus, bless you. Thanks for this amazing community of believers and what you're doing on this corner. And in the corner of our hearts. And we just thank you in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. And I really struggle with about 95% of the giving generosity messages I hear. We've softened it in the church now. We just use the word generosity. I think generosity is the key to all that we do. But I think we also need to talk about what it means to let go of the things that keep us safe.

And so, God talks a lot about finance. He talks a lot about money because it is one of the things that not only we find identity, we find security in that. And so, it makes sense that he had a command originally, which we found out last week, no longer counts in the New Testament. That you had to give to God in order to have a relational ability with God in the Old Testament. Jesus paid the debt. So, if you hear any sermons anymore that say the scripture says that if you don't give to God, if you don't tithe, if you don't give offerings, that you're robbing God, that is diminishing the gospel.

I believe it's a false gospel that says what Jesus did on the cross did not pay all the debt and you still owe something. And that is against the gospel. Now, the cool thing is, is for the first time in history, since Christ died on the cross, you can now give to God as an overflow of your relationship with him in a way that is from free will that is completely a love offering. So, like the example I had last week was, you know, what if your kids had to give you mandatory hugs?

Like, nobody would want that relationship. And so, you don't have... I make my kids give me hugs anyways. But you don't want that relationship. You want a free will offering. And so, God is not the fan of the obligatory giving. So, if there's a guilt component, if it's ever given like that, you're missing what the gospel and giving is all about. And so, I want to set that platform. And the first thing that I want to say is that giving is not transactional.

At least, giving with God is not transactional. It is not quid pro quo. You give us a little something and I'll give you a little something in return. Or you're just a number on a spreadsheet to God. I interviewed Kent Porter. He's a life coach. He's here this week. It's up on the church's website. It's on my YouTube channel and on my website as well. I want to continue to interview people in the church. This week, I'm going to be interviewing Jeff Edwards, who is a DJ on one of the largest stations.

He goes to our church in the 1970s and 80s. And we're going to talk about the movie Queen from Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, and a bunch of things that are going on in culture and about music. But I interviewed Kent this week just because we have so many fascinating people that are sitting around you. And I said to him, we were talking about... Because he has a real heart for employees. Now, everybody wants to talk to the leader, right?

All the podcasts are about being the leader, being charging ahead with all that. And what he really has a passion for are the worker bees. He has a passion for the people that don't want to be leaders because everyone's being told you have to be a leader, whether you're built to be a leader or not. And if you're not a leader, then you're missing out. And he says, no, there's a passion for the employee. It's a fascinating conversation that we had.

But the thing that really hit me, because I was trying to ask really provocative, intriguing questions and be, you know what I mean, like whoever, Larry King. I wasn't trying to be like Larry King. Like everyone under 40 is like, who's Larry King? And so I said, why should leaders value employees? What is so great about employees? And I expected to say, well, employees get, you know, if your production will go up. And he goes, well, they're people.

And I was like, darn it, darn it. Yes, that's what I meant. And he goes, it's not transactional. They're people. And it's so true. And it is so difficult in our lives to not give people the dignity to be people. We figure out what they can offer us, what our employees can offer us, what people can offer us in regard to social clout. We become so transactional. You see it on the football field. You see it in America with contracts and people doing holdouts.

And, you know, what am I worth and what are they worth? And there's like this price tag that we're putting on people on a regular basis. And when I asked, when I asked what is the value of employees, he said they're people. And I thought that is so true that they are people. And I think we really need to start there. And I believe when we talk about generosity, when we talk about giving this whole idea, we need to realize that God is not seeing you as a data point.

And that what he wants to do is speak to you about his incredible value that you are. God doesn't care about your money. He cares about you and he cares about your heart. And he cares about his relationship with you. And the question is, do we care about him as much as he cares about us? God doesn't need money. God doesn't need another cow. He doesn't need sacrifices. He says this in the Old Testament over and over again to the point where he says, the Jews were so good in the Old Testament at giving God money, at giving God sacrifices.

And he's like, I am so sick and tired of sacrifices. What I want is relationship. And what you're not offering me is relationship. And you keep doing all this stuff to get good points in my book. But I don't want points. I want you. And I think what we miss all the time, especially when we talk about giving at churches, is how much God is passionately in love with you. How much God really cares about you. And my question is, do you believe it?

Or does God's love have to break through, you know, this incredible lacquer that we put on ourselves of self-doubt, of fear of worry that I'm not good enough, I'm not in the purpose, I'm not doing the things that God said. And we have this whole wall that God has to walk through when he just wants to step over it and say that I love you. And that is why I went to this Isaiah 61 passage. Because what I want to say is that whatever you do for God with your wallet, it's not even secondary.

It's not even third-endary, eighth-endary, whatever word you want to use. It's not even close to how much he values you and wants your heart. And that's the place that we want to begin. You know what? This is what I believe. That if people understood how much of a treasure that they were of God's heart, that you are the apple of his eye, that you are the pearl of great price, and that he would offer himself completely to you, if that relationship is right, you never need to speak about anything to do with probably sin, with giving, all these things, because all of a sudden, it becomes an overflow to live in that love.

And we want to live in a love relationship. Our world is creating, is a machine for hard hearts. Have you noticed that your margin is getting less and less? That people's margin is getting less and less? I was at a soccer game yesterday, and I watched a dad go off on the ref, and the dad got kicked out of the game. I watched his daughter come up and use words that I don't think sailors, no offense to the sailors again, that bakers would never use.

It keeps throwing the sailors under the ship again. You know, and I was like, and people are so, like, it was so quick. It was so quick. Bad call. All of a sudden, language. All of a sudden, you're off the field. And I was like, we are margins. Have you driven lately? Our margins are so limited. I'm also finding that within that, I've met some beautiful people. I went and brought some, I went to, did a visitation this week, and I met a nurse who was caring for a person in hospice care, and we spoke for a moment.

I just said, because we've, my mom was, my grandma was in hospice care, and we've experienced that in our family, and some of you have as well. They're like angels. Hospice nurses are angels. And I said, thank you so much for what you do. And we had this conversation, and in the end, it was like, I told her what I did, and we were talking about loving on people because we were bringing food to them. And we just said, hey, we're working together as a team and community.

And there was this moment of human connection that went beyond whether she was this political party, whether I was white, whether she was what she was, whether she was gay, whether I was straight. It went beyond all of that to a place of human recognition and dignity that was so beautiful to have that moment. And I've got to say, those moments are more available now than I have ever seen in my life. If you can break through to those moments of clarity with people, they're actually there because people are so broken.

And if you can break through this crust, we think that the world is a complete mess, and it is, but I also think there's this beauty. And we see this happening in these two scriptures as we move on. Let me just move on to this understanding, because that moment is the moment God wants to have with you. God wants to have those moments with you. He doesn't want you to run to your distractions. He's not sitting there with a splintered ruler to snap you on the knuckles.

He wants you to run to him to have a loving relationship. And this Psalm 61, if you're having a problem liking yourself, read Psalm 61, excuse me, Isaiah 61, this verse, and read Romans 8 over and over again until you get it into your head how much you are loved by God. Let's start with the tithe. And the starting place for all generosity is understanding that you are God's greatest treasure, and he is meant to be yours.

Let me say that again. Because I tell you the truth, I really don't care about your money. It is my job to allow people the opportunity to bless God, because it's a big deal for God. And I've seen the blessing that comes when we financially bless God. I've seen it. And I'm excited about giving you that opportunity. But I ultimately don't want to be in a place where you become a transaction. That's why I don't look at who gives what.

God doesn't need your money. This church has been on this corner for 90 years without me. It's been on this corner for 90 years without most of you, some of you. And I believe in my heart that it will continue to be here. Now, with that said, I believe God wants to give us the opportunity to take this corner to a kingdom changing. I think this corner can revolutionize San Diego. I think this corner, I literally believe this corner can revolutionize the world.

Hopefully you believe that as well. But the starting place of all this, of all generosity, is understanding that you are God's greatest treasure, and he is meant to be yours. And until we get that, anything you do sacrificially, whether it's giving your time, your treasure, or your talent, will be tainted by the curse of sin and despair. And we don't want our offerings to have that. We want to get back to that place.

So if you have just been giving, and giving, but not experiencing that, you know what I encourage you? Stop giving. Stop giving. Give yourself a three-month break from giving. And go spend some time with God, and become his treasure. And see what that does to your life and your heart. Do that and see what happens. Over and over again, God wants you to be his treasure and use his. And so that's the starting place. All material generosity is an overflow of this understanding.

And see what giving looks like when you understand how much God loves you. I said last week that I love giving. I love financial giving. I do it. I believe my wife loves it too. We've never, I hate saying never not, but we've never not been in agreement on giving. We've continued to try to press into that ever since we got married over and over again. And I love writing that check every single week and to the other people we give on.

It's just something, because it's not flowing from a place of having to jump over a hurdle anymore. It's loving seeing God do stuff like that. See God doing stuff like that. And the creativity that God allows me to co-labor with him. All material generosity is an overflow of this understanding. It also says it honors the Lord. Look at Proverbs 3.9 in your notes. Here it says, Honor the Lord. At the beginning, Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of your crops.

Then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim with new wine. Do I believe that that's still true? Absolutely. I've been in this too long not to know it's, not to know that it's not true. I think I said that right. God, if we are sacrificially generous financially, with the things that God cares about, with other people, you don't have to give it here. Find somewhere else and go test God. I have seen him over and over again continue to give that blessing back to people.

See, he removed the curse, he removed the debt, but he kept the blessing. That's the awesome thing about what Jesus did on the cross. There is now no condemnation. It is for freedom that you have then set free, the scripture says. You can go follow the law, but now be led by the law of the spirit to do the things God did, that wants you to do, not under compulsion, not under the law, but under freedom, and receive the blessing now without having to do it.

That's amazing. That's what it's supposed to be. And financial generosity, as we see of this, shows that it's an honor. Look how the giving in the scripture, go to that verse at the beginning. Proverbs 3, 9 and 10. It says, honor the Lord with your wealth. It doesn't say, give your wealth and the Lord will be honored. It starts with honor. I don't think honor is something we see a lot in our society today. I'm not even sure a fifth grader knows what honor looks like.

Like, what is honorable? What does it look like when someone walks in the room and we know that, yeah, you can say, well, only God deserves honor, true, and earthly honor means nothing, but there are still people, and you'll see even Paul saying it, speaking about people, certain people that deserve honor because of what they do in the name of God. Have you met an honorable person? Do your children know how to treat someone with respect?

I gotta say one thing I grew up with. For all the little picadillos that we had in our family and the difficult things that we had going on, my mom and my dad taught me how to honor my elders. They taught me how to honor people. They taught me how to honor people who were in need. They taught me how to honor people that were desperate. You know, not everyone has to be a military colonel to have honor. As I look around and I see the poor and the oppressed, sometimes we just need to give them honor and the dignity of being a human being.

And so it says honor. And so I love this idea of honor because when it says that we're giving to the Lord, you are saying you deserve honor. I love in my quiet times, in worship, when I get to a place where I just feel like I'm kissing the feet of Jesus and I just want to honor him like he's king. Imagine you're in the 15th century and the king comes in and how they used to treat kings and we don't like that anymore because we're kind of moving on between the kings and the queens and we think that that's a negative thing.

But the Bible says if you have a good king or a good queen, it's actually a great thing for the people. And people would come and they would lay down and not that we would lay down before people and kiss their signet ring or whatever, but just that is a vision of what we could do with God. And the thing is, when we give financially, it says that you are coming to God like you are honoring him. I love that. Honoring him with your life.

And so the question is, where do you get a chance? Where are you honoring God with your life? And where are you honoring other people? You know, I just love the idea of trying to honor and give dignity to other people and to have a human reality with people. We'll talk more about that with my interview with Jeff this week. You'll see it online as we talk about humanity. Favor. As you move on to the next one, or excuse me, before that, financial generosity is one mirror of your relationship with God.

It's not the only mirror. But your financial generosity, whether, you know, it doesn't have to be to the church. I think if you're part of a church, it's important. I think there is scripture to back that up. But I was with a homeless guy not too long ago and he said, hey, can I buy you, can I buy you lunch? I was like, yeah. You know what I'm not going to do? Say no. No, no, come on, dude. You can't buy me lunch. No.

Yeah, you can buy me some lunch. And he said, can your wife come too? I said, well, my wife can't make it because I'd like to buy you both lunch. And we went to this Mexican restaurant and we went and got lunch together. And it was awesome. And I ordered the shrimp. I had a shrimp burrito. It's like two bucks more. He said, get whatever you want. I thought, that's awesome. You have to honor people and let them be human.

You're not a homeless dude. I'm not a guy that lives in La Jolla. We're human beings. And we have to start being human beings. And I find myself just getting broke in how little my margin is when we start putting people in these boxes. I tweeted back at some guy I was angry at this week. I don't do a lot of tweeting back, but I did. Because he's a gay activist and he was angry that the Freddie Mercury Bohemian Rhapsody movie wasn't gay enough.

And that it was an insult to Freddie. And I said, I couldn't disagree more. I actually think that what they tried to do with that movie is humanize him and not make him a piece of social sexual propaganda. And we are more than our sexual quote identity. I actually had a fair amount of retweets on that one. I was surprised. I'm like, don't wade into that water. I'm like, I'm sick of people being sick. You're this. You're the gay person.

You're the Christian. You're the Muslim. You're this. We need to honor one another. And let's start being human again. I think we do this by honoring God and seeing how much he honors us as we see other people. I don't know if you're with me on that point. I was off the road a little bit, but it's not a bad rabbit trail. Thank you, Chris. Chris says it's okay. As we move on, favor. I'll be talking about that in that interview, so check that interview out.

God's word is abundantly clear that sacrificial generosity releases God's deeper favor upon your life. Look, I know people have over preached that. I know they preach that in a way to just get money. I know people do it to manipulate poor widows in the Midwest and other people around the world and the poor. I know that that has been done really poorly by the church. It doesn't mean that it's not true. You know, I try as hard as I can to say we don't need your money.

I think you've heard me say that enough. People say, I can't believe you say that. Well, it's true. But with that said, I think that there's true and God does do it. And so the question then comes, are there levels of God's favor? Faith in Christ gives us eternal accessibility to all of God's inheritance, but many believers fail to claim what has been given unto them. So many of us fail to claim the eternal blessings.

Ephesians chapter 1, chapter 2, the entire book of Ephesians talks about the eternal blessings that are in God. That everything is there and available to you. It doesn't mean that you're going to have eternity on earth, but it means everything that you need, every eternal option is available to you in the moment and that God will provide to you and he wants to give you not only expanded margins, but bless you beyond what normal life blesses you.

I've said it over and over again. Being the best you you can be is such a low bar. It is such a low bar. I don't want to be the best I can be. I want to supernaturally through God's power infusing the gifts of my heart and my mission with him to be far greater than I could ever be on my own. I hear life coaches over and over again, not Kent, but over and over again saying, I'm going to help you be the best you can be.

You know? No. You know when they say, we're going to get 110%. No, you're not on your own. There's no such thing as 110%. But with God there is. God takes 100% of you and takes it to the next level. This one goes to 11. Some of you got that. So are there, there is greater areas. So Ephesians 1.18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. Let me just say it boldly again. Open your eyes. Not these, this. The eyes of your heart.

That your eyes of your heart might be enlightened. So that you will know the hope of his calling. The hope. Circle that word hope. Do you not have enough hope? The world needs hope because he is calling. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance of the saints? What are the riches? Does it mean you get your rent paid? Oh my gosh. Let's not besmirch the riches of God by saying it's a financial blessing in your court.

I mean, yes. Does God want to bless you? Does he want to make sure? He says, he already promises in the scripture he's going to give you everything you need. Might not be what you want. But let's say that there are riches in heaven that looks like that sunset the other night. Where I just looked around and we were all sitting in the water just going, are you serious? It was just like, it felt like heaven opened up. I don't know what was going on but something supernatural in my opinion was going on that was more than a sunset.

That's just the eyes of my heart telling me what I think I saw. It doesn't mean I'm right. But we continue to see that over and over again. That God wants to give you more of an inheritance. He wants to give you himself. Do you know what your final, you know what you get? You don't get heaven. You get God. You don't, oh, I can't wait till I go to, you know, I'm going to do this so I can go to heaven. Heaven's awesome.

Heaven's great. Heaven is a dwelling place of whom? God. You don't get heaven. Heaven is secondary. You get God. And that is the theology that we often miss. We're not trying to go to heaven. We're trying to go be embedded in the heart of God for eternity where he tells you I love you over and over again like he says in Revelations. I have your name on a rock that no one else will know and I will hand you a white stone.

Really weird verse. I will hand you a white stone and it has a name that no one knows and I will speak intimately and I will whisper in your ear and I will tell you for eternity how much I love you and you will be safe and the darkness will never come again and the giants will no longer knock upon your door and no one will come and haunt you in the middle of night and there will be no hope because God doesn't need hope when he's there with you and there will be no faith because God is there and you don't need to have faith when you are with God.

That is heaven. Heaven is just a dwelling place of the God that he wants to give. He is the richest and so can we stop and if I hear the gospel preached one more time about God cares so much about giving you financial riches on earth and they don't mention that he is our inheritance I want to choke and it is so good the goodness of God and we can have some of that today on earth. A few things as we go Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61 1-7 gives a clearer and much larger picture of what it looks like to walk in the deep favor of God.

Do you want the favor of God upon your life? I want obedience not sacrifice and if you can't obey then just start praying that you can obey. It says this and you can see it in that scripture because I love this because getting in alignment with God will give you these things. Mending of broken hearts. Is your heart broke? It's a lot of broken hearts. Are you a captive? You're captive to an old relationship an old thought something that didn't work out.

I know so many people that are five to seven years out of a relationship they can't let go of and the other person's moved on and they can't get out and they're in bondage to it. It is for freedom you have been set free and it is the former things we leave behind pressing on to what is ahead and sometimes God says until you're ready to let go we can't move forward and he will be he is an eternal God. He's pretty patient.

Those 30, 40 years seem like a lot to us they're nothing to God but he wants you to be free. Do you need to get free? Do whatever it takes to get free. Free from your addiction. Free from your loss. Free from your pain. Do whatever it takes. Freedom to get honest. Closing up now because we're moving into communion. He comfort for those that mourn. Beauty and praise instead of ashes for those that mourn. Restoration of the things devastated.

Passive income from sources outside of your labor. A double portion which often means honor. Back to the idea of honor. Do you know that God wants to honor you? He wants to honor you. The scripture even says that he wants to honor you. It also says that your children can bring honor to you. I have children thank God that bring honor to me. I love having children that bring honor to me. I did not bring honor to my family when I was a kid.

Just straight up I didn't. I didn't really care. It wasn't on my grid. But God has redeemed the years the locusts have eaten away and given me something that I didn't deserve and he's brought honor back now to my mom because they waited for their honor through my relationship and we have children now and we're blessed by them and I love being do you like being blessed by your children? And if you're not blessed by your children then let's keep praying and holding on together that God might bless them and maybe it'll be the next generation but God's coming.

The final thing it says everlasting joy. So the question is this are you ready for deeper favor? Or will you continue to live off the thin margins and table scraps of blessing? If you want it it comes from obedience it comes from changing the channel from the distractions you're a part to worship to prayer to community there's a whole host of things. Financial is just one portion of that. But do you want to get in alignment and move in deeper favor?

A lot of the deeper favor a lot of the blessing is an if if you want it. Final thing as Chris comes up in the band for communion and the communion team are you ready for deeper favor or will you continue to live off the thin margins and table scraps of blessings? There's a lot more than table scraps and we're going to feast upon it now as we take communion. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand.

Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. Let's stand. let's stand. mana let's stand.