Giving Series

Giving

Series: Spiritual Practices: Developing Life with God

October 31, 2021

Welcome...each of you here...and online... so thankful for this time.

We don’t go to church... we are the church... what we do is gather...and grow...and go.

Not just to gather together... but to grow together.

Grow spiritually... a central goal ...is that we become increasingly centered and satisfied in God.

Growing doesn’t just happen... growing comes from sowing... from the rocess and patterns we practice.

This series.... Spiritual Practices: Developing Life with God

One of the lives ... Dallas Willard...

Try to do live out the great ideals of Jesus...without the patterns of life.

> This series is about recognizing and renewing the patterns that are a part of developing our life with God... developing God-centered life.

When the Apostle Paul was writing to the one of the leaders he helped develop, he wrote in the NT Biblical writings...

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. - 1 Timothy 4:7-8 (ESV)

What’s he saying?

He’s saying...you don’t actually grow by chasing after some hidden secret ... silly myth.

Rather train yourself in the patterns that will transform your spiritual nature... your inner person.

“The nature of practicing something ...is the relationship between the exercising of that which we desire to form in our nature. Spiritual practices are simply foundational to spiritual formation.”

Last week… worship. The significance of developing a regular practice of bringing the goodness and greatness of God before our minds and souls. It forms our sense of what deserves to be given worth.

Today... we are engaging the spiritual practice of giving... particularly giving our material resources to honor and serve God.

The whole nature of giving...of even talking about money and material resources can be scary.

So I thought the day marked as Halloween would be a fitting day to confront those fears..

I believe that we need to confront our fear of talking about money... and we need to dispel the fear

Giving is too often a trick that should be a treat.

In the Scriptures, we find this affirmation from the Apostle Paul...

"Just as you excel in everything else.., in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness.., see that you also excel in the grace of giving." 2 Cor. 8:7

Paul describes the GRACE of giving. Take those words in. We usually don’t think of giving as a grace... a gift.

In the Bible, we are reminded that

“the Lord Jesus himself said, 'There is more happiness in giving than in receiving.'" (Acts 20:35, GNT)

Think about that... there is something that speaks deeply ...something our souls affirm... and yet we don’t easily connect with this grace...this happiness.

I think we can tend to detach from giving by thinking it’s a gift for rich people to do. And rich people usually refer to people with much more than we have. Similarly...we might think we’d love to give when we win the lottery.

But the truth of what Jesus said ... Paul said... is for each of us.

“See that you excel”... that you grow... become strong.

How? By practicing. Spiritual practice….

I believe this raises another reason that we miss the grace... the happiness... and that is that lose a connection between the practice and the purpose.... between what we are doing and why we are doing it.

Like someone taking musical lessons... if the practicing becomes disconnected from gift that music can bring... it becomes a duty without desire... it becomes an empty obligation.

So for some people... the problem is that we never actually practice….and for others... it’s that we practice but become disconnected from why... to the very meaning and purpose at hand..

So the most important question... is what is it we need to develop ...that we develop when we give?

What is it I need to develop ...that I develop when I give?

The practice of giving provides a means to ….

1. Exercise my role as a manager... rather than owner... of life’s provisions.

Our entire relationship to money and life’s possessions is one of being managers of what has been extended to us to care for.

Genesis 2:15

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Here God is revealing our true position in relationship to all of life’s resources. He is saying: “I have created a world full of goodness…and provision. I have created you with capacity to help manage these resources.

Our entire relationship to money and life’s possessions is one of being managers of what is not fundamentally ours. [1]