OCT 9 2016

Sea Change Church · Adam Stadtmiller · October 9, 2016
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

We are in Philippians because I am just so intrigued by these Macedonian churches. Philippi, I'm learning so much about the church at Philippi. And I'm really, I think, committed to how do we create a church that Paul would look at, that Jesus would look at, and say that that little church right there, that little group of people right there, there's a little bit of a, there's a marked difference.

The Bible talks in the seven churches in Revelations, it talks about God being very aware of the personality of different churches. And I think it's really interesting that it says in Paul's troubles, there was a ton of persecution. Paul actually had to flee Philippi to Thessalonica. And when he left, because of the persecution that was going on, he said, and I hadn't seen this before, this is the only church that supported him.

And I thought, wow, this guy has bled for the gospel, been stoned, beaten, did all these things. But this little jewel of a church, I'm just so impressed by it. And I'm excited about this text because this is a church that they had nothing to lose, it felt like. And they were formerly idol worshipers. One of the things you'll see about the Philippians is that they would just make idols, and they would just, you know, make an idol and then bow down and worship the idol and different giant carved idols.

They had left their idols to follow the risen Christ. And that's a, think about that jump. Okay, we think sometimes people's jump, like you look at a person and we kind of give up on people. Like they are way too far down the path. And I heard some people speaking yesterday and I was tempted to think they are so far down the path. There is no way we could, you know, they could ever understand what I feel the Holy Spirit wants to share with them.

And I thought, you know, we can't give up on people or the message of the cross, knowing that it is God that opens hearts. And so this little church was all in. And I just, I just love them. And so one of the things that they were so good at was generosity. They just gave beyond, as we said last week, gave beyond their ability. Talked last week about how to do that.

How do we give? That is when you were in supernatural territory. We always want to live at least 1% beyond our ability. You want to have a little, you want to, you know, seek to have more courage than you actually have. Just 1%. God's not looking for you to jump off the cliff. A lot of times when we think of faith, it's jumping off a cliff. And we feel like, I'm just going to fly off the cliff.

You know, 1% is still more than you have. Where you need to source whatever that thing is. Whether it be forgiveness, generous in forgiveness. Or generous in finance. Or generous with your time. Or generous with your attitudes. Or generous with your opinions. 1% is all we need to take us into supernatural territory. And like I've said, you know, multiple weeks.

And there's a few phrases that I circle the church around on a regular basis. You give Jesus an inch and he'll take what? An eternity. It is so true. Just let him have a little stake on the corner of your heart. And so this church had done that. I love church crafting. I just love it. I think about it all the time. I lay in bed at night and think about it.

And, you know, Alex said to me yesterday, what made you think to come to this conference? And I said, how did you know all this was going to be happening? How did you know we needed to be here? Because once they got there, all three of them, they were like, whoa. We had no, whoa. This is it. I said, this is what I do. You know, I know I just look like I surf and sweep a little bit around here or whatever.

But like there's a little bit more to it. And one of it is understanding where the culture is going and crafting a church. Fine crafting a church. You know what I love about this church? Is when I got here, all the, you know, if you think about creating a statue, all the hard, you know, chipping away had been done. And I really feel like God brought me into the beautiful work of fine sanding, a beautiful church.

This is a beautiful church with beautiful people. When I invite people to come, which I've been doing, I just say, all I can say, like Paul says all the time, where do you meet our people? And I just start talking about our people. And I hope you do the same thing. And so here's this church. Here's the main course for today because Paul is now talking about generosity of material things in this passage.

Now, last week, we just talked about generosity as a whole. I think too often as churches, we just start talking about, you know, hey, we need four shekels to get this extra wing of the church done. And when we do that, then we will go back to doing whatever. And it's not about shekels. It's about a heart. It's not about drachma. I can keep going on currencies of the world.

Ancient, new. It's about a heart. It's about what it says we have decided in our heart to do to be a generous person. And I was so challenged. Money has not been a difficult thing for me to be generous with. And that isn't to brag. It just was always there. I mean, money wasn't there. Just the ability to want to give. And it was just easy. It just was there.

Do you all have certain traits? Maybe some of you are kind. Or whatever it is, it's just always been there for you. You meet people and they just have this thing about them. You meet Molly, who is one of our greeters. And she just has this friendly, bubbling thing that's just natural. Like, I don't have that. I don't have that. I need like nine cups of coffee.

And I need to get my game face on to get there in the morning. But that's just been one thing that's always been kind of easy for me. To just, I haven't been worried. Because I always felt like I didn't live in a poverty mentality. There would be more to come. But what has been hard for me is I've been really focusing in on like in line. How impatient I get with people.

So last week was like generosity. Can you please, Adam, just be a little more generous in forgiveness? Letting that person cut you off. You know, letting my kids keep walking in front of me in the house. We have a big enough house. You don't have to walk in front of me every minute. They seem to find me. So last week was about generosity of life.

But this is about generosity of finance. And at some point we have to talk about this. It's a difficult thing because finance is our happiness. Finance is our security. Finance is a big deal. And the Bible talks about it a lot. And I think about it talks about it a lot for some reasons. Because I think it has the ability to find, to craft our soul.

And like I'm wanting to craft a congregation to change the world. You're working with Jesus and collaborating with him to fine tune your heart. To be a heart that looks like the heart of God. That when we present ourselves to God at the judgment. That we can present to him a fragrant offering and a sacrifice. Here's the main course for today. The enemy of contentment is unfettered desire.

Unfettered desire. I looked that up. That is actually a word. And the reason I originally wrote the enemy of contentment is desire. I don't think that's true. I think that God says that we can have desires. The Bible says you can have desires of your heart. He knows that you have things that you want. But are they put within the context of his love.

Of his confines. We can't have everything we want. Right now we see one of the messages I see. As I study. Is that you should be able to have whatever you want. Or decide. Whatever a human wants. A human should get to have. And so I think that is interesting. Because God puts things in context. The Bible says it's okay to have desires. But as you'll see.

That what we don't want to have is those desires become gods. And so you will know when a desire becomes a god. There's a line. And it's probably a fine line in your life. But when there's a desire for something. A desire for a relationship. A desire for a thing. Whatever it is. Do we start to covet that? Covetuousness is like Gollum with the ring.

And if you've seen the Lord of the Rings. Or you've read the books. He holds the ring. My precious. And I won't do the thing. But I really want to. I can do Yoda. Yes. So I can do a pretty good Yoda. Look at the ears. But something we start to covet. We just got to let it go. And so that's. This was a church that had the ability to do that. And this is a verse.

I got to say. This verse. Has given me more peace. Than any verse in a long time. And it's this. Out of Ecclesiastes 4.6. Better a handful of quietness. Than two handfuls of toil. And striving after the wind. Are you willing to live with one handful? As we craft a church together. I have to ask myself that question all the time. It is. There is so much within my own personality.

I want to full throttle a church out. To let us be the most known church. To let us be a popular church. We get written about. People come here and do all that. To let all that go to the side. It has nothing to do with that. If those things happen. It's going to happen. Because we want to get after what God has called us to. And if God. If we were doing what God has called us to.

Then his yoke is easy. And his burden is light. And we want to do it in a spirit of rest. And so one of the things. One of the things. The art of discipleship will teach you. If you are a follower of Christ. Is to be able to live with one handful. And to realize that it gives peace. And how much do you value peace? And that's a question. Do you value peace?

A lot of us would rather. Seek after that. That golden carrot. And take all the striving it takes to get that. Than to have peace. How much do you value peace? How much do you value peace of mind? How much do you value margin in your life? How much do you value the ability. To not have to overextend yourself. In 2008. And I don't know why anybody didn't say this.

But it was all about the big banks. Taking advantage of the little man. Or the little person. I got to say there was a consumer. On the other side of that. That signed up for something they couldn't afford. No one was willing. No politician was willing to blame people's greed. It's all the big banks. It's all that. Hey granted. I get what happened with the big banks.

There was people on the other side of that. That were signing. And some were taken advantage of. I get that. There's some impoverished neighborhoods. People that had no understanding of what they were doing. But I would say for 90% of the people. That wasn't true. It was people wanting to overextend. To have two fistfuls than one. And I got to say. We did it to ourselves.

And I don't. By the way. That sounds like truth to me. I don't know if you thought that. But I haven't heard one politician blame the consumer. And I got to say. It is a group of people that said. One handful isn't enough. We need two. And I got to say. In discipleship. Are you willing just to have one? To just live with peace. And be able to give the other handful away.

Here's the context that we see. Paul's writing to a Philippian church. To commend them on their faithful generosity. To instruct them on its purpose. This is a text. Focuses primarily on giving of physical and monetary needs. We're going to tear through this right now. Tearing the text apart. As you'll see in your notes. One. Unfettered desire is the enemy of contentment.

You have unfettered. If you think of a flag blowing in the wind. And it's ripping at the edges. That is your desire like that. That thing you want. That house. You know. Your constant search is on realtor.com. And the house you're in isn't good enough. I got to get the next one. Or the car you're in. I got to get the next one. Or whatever. Never. Ecclesiastes is a great book about that.

You know what it's going to say? It's like chasing after the wind. You'll just want more. I want to say you'll never be. If that's the goal. Scripture is so clear. You will never be content. Because we are built. God built us. To not be satisfied. Except by one thing. Himself alone. And so he built that in us. But when it is used to go after our own desires.

We will continually chase after the wind. Better to be content. And to pour that energy into the Lord. The second point is this. The giving of material gifts are seen as having a threefold purpose. This is powerful. In this scripture they are seen as a fragrant offering. An acceptable sacrifice. And pleasing to God. That says that when you leverage.

When you give physical gifts to your neighbor. You take them a piece of cake. You take stuff out of your garden and give it away. You write a check to World Vision. You bless. You tithe. Whatever it is. There is three things that shift on the ledgers of heaven. I mean literally physical, spiritual shifts that happen. Here is one. It becomes a fragrant offering to God.

We will talk about that. Such a powerful word. Two. It is an acceptable sacrifice. When we do it with the right heart. When we do it just for him. Can you imagine if you give something to God. And he just says yes I accept that. And the next it says that it is pleasing to God. One way to please God is to give materially from your life. You want to please God.

This is a. The Bible says that this will please God. Let's look at the first one. Unfettered desire. Paul in verse 12. Tearing this text apart. I know what it is to be in need. And I know what it is to have plenty. Interesting statement. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Whether well fed. Hungry. Whether living in plenty.

Or in want. As I said earlier. There is nothing wrong with wants. Until they become your gods. The Philippians had had little gods that they bowed down and worshipped. And it is so easy for ourselves. To find the things that we want. To become little demigods in our lives. I will ask you this. What are the things that are gods? And we are willing to tear ourselves away.

To have the peace that comes from knowing Christ. Philippians. In three. A little bit after. Or maybe before the scripture. Paul had spoken about. The type of people. Who live according to their stomachs. The stomachs. It is really powerful. It is just whatever I want. Caligula was a Roman. Was a Roman Caesar. One of the most disgusting of all. That had the vomitorium.

Where they would just eat. And then they had. I don't know if you know about that. I said I wouldn't share many of these things. But I am going to share this one. And I can kind of understand what happens. You eat until you are full. And you go throw up and go eat some more. I mean. Really? Like that was Roman custom. Just. Blah. Ah. Just more. More. More.

More. More is never enough. Enough. Enough. More concubines. More women. More sex. More chariots. More power. More. Ah. There is just. More. It is actually disgusting. It is a disgusting opulence. You know. I will not go into free market capitalism. I will just leave that one off. If you want to talk to me about it afterwards we can. And the positives of that.

Some of the. You know. But. It is so easy. To live that Roman type of nature. Paul talks about that. They understood greed. They understood it. So let me read. Just from a chapter earlier. Him talking to Philippian church. As I have often told you. And now tell you again. Even with tears. This made Paul cry. Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. I got to say.

I went yesterday. And I don't know. I was surrounded by a lot of great people. And I believe I was surrounded by some. That were enemies of the cross of Christ. I just. I mean. Paul was able to see it. And I don't think. That's a judgment. I think when you see something. And you know it's truth. And that we have a society today. Where there are people that are enemies of the cross of Christ.

And Paul says it. This is what he says. Their destiny is what? Destruction.