Summary: Our lifestyles are to the glory of God to be abundant. With the abundance we have recieved we are able to give of our time, talents and treasures. Read on.

Lifestyle of generosity.

This material should be used in conjunction with Dr Harry Wendt’s “In Heavens Name, Why on Earth?” There are many quotes throughout the sermon of Dr Harry.

We Christian’s have a thing build into us by the Spirit of God, and this thing comes about due to the life change that occurs when we become believers. When the Holy Spirit impacts us, we want to tell others about Jesus, about how we have encountered God. I know that some of us are a bit fearful of doing this, I’ve been there myself, while others do it to such an extent that those hearing about it wish they would shut up for five minutes so they could get a word in edgeways about the rugby or the news or that the eggs have boiled dry and the saucepans caught fire and things are looking fairly grim in the kitchen.

What happens to us when we come to faith, is that we become part of ‘the priesthood’! Now I’m not talking about the robes and the dog collar, bless me father for I have sinned, type of priest, but about being part of this great body of all believers that is the church. All these odd, some odder than others, saved people joined together that comprise the earthly body of Christ, The Church. We priests are thankful for our salvation, and this leads to our living generous lives.

This was true for the nation of Israel, that it was God’s intention for them to be a priestly nation, being witnesses and magnates drawing other people to God. When God gathered the people together at Mount Sinai he said “The whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5b-6) Then God made His covenant with the nation of Israel.

Peter echos those words, this to the Chistian Church in his first letter; “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9). An interesting thing about being Christian is that we have given Jesus Lordship over our lives. We realise that our life journeys do not end here, our stories change, we no longer miss the mark or at least try not to, and we are part of an eternal journey and as such we realise that we are temporary tenants here on earth, we are presented with the opportunity to devote our lives to the service of God and others. As we live lives thankful to God it leads to our living generously out of the overflow of abundance we receive.

Paul in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 states it this way:

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.”

I can recall many times when people have blessed us out of their poverty in both Sri Lanka and Fiji. People with very little going without so that we who visited them would be fed and provided for. They saw it as service to God, hosting his representatives, and would not take “we are okay,” for an answer.

Harry Wendt in his book ‘In Heavens name Why on Earth,’ [Power Point] uses this picture as a description of life. The character on the lower left Harry has named Sylvester, I’m not sure why he chose Sylvester either. Now Sylvester wondering how all these things, government, education, provision-as in food, family, money that’s making and saving money, leisure activities and work all fit in his life and with his faith in God. Yip, I touched on this last week. He is wondering how he fits his Christian faith in with these things and Harry points out that he’s asking the wrong question. That the right question is “How do I fit these things into my Christianity?” He justifies this by mentioning Jesus words; “But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33. Jesus is telling the disciples not to worry about the things that we need, and that God will provide their needs. Earlier on Jesus had told the disciples “Worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.” (Matthew 4:10) Interestingly he also points out that God does not seek first place in our lives, he seeks the only place in our lives.

As such, as believers we all can relate to the things in the picture:

Without some form of government chaos prevails, some would say with government chaos prevails, but truly it would be worse.

The education symbol; God has given us amazing minds and skills and he wants us to keep on developing them. I know some of you have that philosophy of being a student for life.

The food symbol; those who neglect good nutrition run the risk of poor health and can become a liability to themselves and others.

Family; The commandments tell us to honour our parents, to be faithful to our spouse. Parents have a huge influence over their children whether they try to or not. Family is the smallest group, the building block of society, of community. In a world where self-centeredness seems to be encouraged, the family unit is under threat and needs ongoing respect and protection from influences both physical and spiritual, those that would destroy it.

Money; Dr. Harry has an interesting way to look at this. It plays an important role in keeping the wheels of everyday life turning over. Dr Harry sees it as stored servanthood. Dr Harry says (paraphrase): It is to be used to glorify God by serving and empowering others. He uses this illustration about a loaf of bread. When a farmer places a grain of wheat in the soil, the seed that he plants and the soil he places it in are owned by God. God provides the sun and the rain that make it grow and in the long term the farmer reaps a harvest. When we buy bread, we don’t pay for the bread, we pay for the service in the stored form of money. The farmer, the people who made the butter and the salt, the transporter, miller, baker and storekeeper all get their cut, for their service. The raw materials are a free gift from God.

Leasure, well the lack of it is not good. Lack of fitness dulls the mind, endangers health, and makes people of less use in serving God and others.

The factory symbol; Work is service to the communities we live in. Some work produces goods people need and other work produces services people need.

So as the Church, that/this collective group if people who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we are more than just a group who gathers every Sunday to worship God, however that is a great place to start. We are more than just a building with a nice appearance and street frontage and someone who brings a message on Sunday.

This power point shows what the New Testament means when it speaks of God’s Church. Most of these words are Dr Harry’s “The world with the symbol for God the Black circle with the red arrows. Superimposed is a depiction of Jesus the Servant King. The Messiah, the cross, the empty tomb, go Jesus! There are six circles depicting five vocations; a musician, an engineer, farmer, caretaker and pharmacist, The empty circle, is for you to put your vocation in. Through His word the Bible, God shows his people who He is and what he has done by way of Jesus for our redemption. So, we are to do whatever we do in life praising Him and bringing glory to His name. That is why the people in the picture are standing with their arms raised, all the while serving others. As we live thankful lives it leads to our living generously in service. This is truely abundant living.

The arrows to the people have two heads indicating that God’s people are both summoned and sent, the called and the commissioned, the gathered and the scattered.

Dr Harry points out that all places of Christian worship should have a sign above the entrance that reads ‘Servants entrance” and over the exit door a sign that reads ‘Your Mission Field.’

If we are not serving God, we have an indifference to him. Dr Harry points out as a good Lutheran would that “Martin Luther suggested that we humans think of ourselves, [or should think of ourselves] as a horse, the one in the saddles is ether God or Satan. The question is, “Who sits in the saddle of my life?” If we find ourselves in a struggle we should not be concerned, if there is no struggle there is cause for concern. Struggle indicates our faith is alive and we are involved in spiritual warfare against the powers and principalities of darkness in the heavenly realms.

As we live thankful lives it leads to our living generously.

So, God made us, he owns us, he gives us abilities what we call our talents, the time we have, and he wants us to care for ourselves, so that we can be of service to others.

Jesus tells us that we are “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and strength and all our mind.” (Mark 12:30-31). This PP depicts Sylvester again, the symbol at the top of the picture depicts who? GOD.

Four things top left; with all your heart. Which means, ‘with all your will and being’ God wants our will to be informed. Law codes are the tablets and traffic lights; if we didn’t have road rules what a mess it would be. We all in every part of life need to understand when to stop, red light and I’m not just talking about traffic here, when to proceed with caution, amber light and when it’s okay to proceed with a clear conscience, green. The scales are a depiction of our need to analyse and weigh moral issues in our lives.

With all your soul; top right the faces are an illustration of our external demeanor, which reflects what things are like on the inside. God wants us to develop a Jesus-like character and demeanor. Understandably angry and harsh faces and personalities tend to drive people away.

With all your strength; Bottom right, God wants us to be wise with what we put in our bodies, in my case more than two coffees a day and I’m a raving nutter. You have been warned! Stay healthy, keep as well as you can. Don’t indulge in stupid things would be my advice. It’s always good to avoid stupidity.

With all your mind; bottom left, God wants us to read, watch and study things that will edify [fancy word that means educate or enlighten] and equip us to serve others better.

God has given us a pretty good agenda for how we Christians are to live our lives.

As we serve, both God and our fellow humans, as we live thankful lives it leads to our living generously, this is all good character-building stuff that results in deeper relationship with both God and our fellow man. As we see the outworking of The Holy Spirit in our lives.

Music team, response.

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