Sept 9, 2007 - Extravagant Generosity (I)

Pentecost 15
September 9, 2007
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
W. Gregory Pope

EXTRAVAGANT GENEROSITY (I):
ENLARGING YOUR SOUL,
EXPANDING THE REACH OF GOD’S LOVE

Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 24

Today is the fifth and final sermon on five practices of faithful and vibrant congregations. It is also the first of three sermons on becoming people of Extravagant Generosity. These three sermons will be offered over the next two months.

I have already encouraged you to be in prayer for our Ministry Teams tonight and the MCC Retreat this Saturday as we shape next year’s budget and look toward the first year of a new century in ministry.

I also invite you to begin prayerfully considering what you and your family will give to the ministries of the church in the upcoming year. If there are some sacrifices or changes in lifestyle that need to be made in order for you to give what you believe God is leading you to give, then begin praying and planning now for those changes and sacrifices.

Before I go further, I most certainly want to offer a word of thanks to you as a congregation for giving faithfully and generously so far this year. You have put us in a great position to extend our ministries and begin new ones, including the possibility of a new staff position for children. I pray you will continue such giving so we can continue to expand the reach of God’s love in this place and beyond these walls.

As I said, this is the first of three sermons on being a generous people. And it is the fifth sermon on five practices of every vibrant and faithful congregation. Robert Schnase says: “These five practices are so crucial to the success of congregations that failure to perform them in an exemplary way leads to the deterioration of the church’s mission. Ignore any one of these tasks or perform any of them in a mediocre, inconsistent, or poor manner, and the church will eventually decline, turn in on itself, and die away.”1

These five practices are: (1) Radical Hospitality, where congregations offer the gracious invitation and welcome of Christ so that people experience a sense of belonging; (2) Meaningful Worship, where God shapes souls, changes minds, and transforms lives, creating a desire to grow closer to Christ; (3) Intentional Spiritual Formation, through which God’s Spirit nurtures people and matures faith as we learn together in community. (4) Risk-Taking Mission and Service, where, as we grow in spiritual maturity, people discern God’s call to help others and make a difference in the world; and (5) Extravagant Generosity, as God inspires us to give of ourselves and our possessions so that others can receive the love and grace of God that we have known.

As I see it, these five practices - hospitality, worship, spiritual formation, missional service, and extravagant generosity - formed the heart and soul of the early church. It was not a perfect group of people - the Bible is clear about that - but they did transform the world in which they lived.

One of the most radical transformations that took place in that little community had to do with their understanding of and relationship to their stuff. Listen again to what Luke writes in the Book of Acts:

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own, but they shared everything they had. There were no needy persons among them for from time to time persons who owned houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet and it was distributed to anyone who was in need. (Acts 4:32-35)

Something radical was going on in that early community of faith. Did you hear that?: No one claimed that any of his or her possessions was his or her own.

Think about how unnatural this is. I know that before long my house is going to be full of a two-year-old’s favorite four-letter word. You know what it is: “Mine!” I heard him say it for the first time this week. As we get older, we don’t say it out loud as often, but we still think it and live it. It expresses itself in all kinds of anxiety and greed.

The miraculous thing about this community in Acts is that they were not forced to share or give up their possessions. They still owned their stuff, but they not possess it, or should I say, it did not possess them. And from time to time, somebody who owned something - land or a house, for example - would sell it and bring the money in. Barnabas, we’re told later in this text, sold a field. But they still held on to other things.

The difference was their theology. And their theology went something like this: “It’s not my stuff. It’s God’s stuff. And God wants God’s stuff used to make a difference in people’s lives. God doesn’t want anybody going without the basic necessities of life. So I’ll give to help. Because everything I have belongs to God.”

Israel was taught that lesson when they were on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Moses warned them:

When you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud. . . . You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is the Lord who gives you the ability to produce wealth. (Deuteronomy 8:12-18)

The first step toward becoming a person of extravagant generosity is coming to grips with who owns the stuff. Deciding whose stuff it is changes everything - attitude, behavior, everything - at a profound level.

To help you develop such an understanding of and relationship to stuff, I want to invite you into an experiment.

I want you to take out your wallets. For many of us, it is our best friend. We know it well. We keep it close by. We know where it is at all times. Take your wallet and hold it for a second. Rub your hands over it. Get those warm fuzzy feelings going, those feelings you get when you’re with your best friend.

Now, hand it to someone beside you who is not in your family. Come on, you can do it. As a nervous smile works its way across your face, those warm fuzzy feelings may be turning into an ache in the stomach. But that’s okay.

Now, we’re going to take up a special offering, and you’re going to be able to be that generous person you’ve always wanted to be. And I’m going to get those credit card numbers I asked for two and a half years ago!

How does it feel having someone else in possession of your money?

Perhaps there is a better question: Do you really believe the contents of your wallet belong to you? Or have you come to the realization that what you possess is not really yours after all, but God’s, and God intends for you to share what you’ve been given with others?

Okay. Everyone give the wallets back to the ones to whom God has loaned them. And let’s all take a deep breath. But don’t put your wallet away. Hold onto it for the rest of the sermon.

Do you realize that the wallet you hold in your hand now that you consider to be yours really isn’t yours after all? It all belongs to God. And the truth is, you can be as generous with the wallet now in your hand as you could a minute ago holding what was someone else’s wallet. Because what you have isn’t yours. It all belongs to God. “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,” says the psalmist, “the world and all who live in it.”

If the truth be told, most of us have a problem with the ownership issue and it controls our attitudes and behaviors in ways that are not always pleasing to God.

The following story was printed in a theological journal called Reader’s Digest.

"A woman was at an airport waiting to get on a plane. She bought a small bag of Oreo cookies. She was sitting in the waiting area and a man she didn’t know was sitting next to her. On the little armrest between them was this small bag of Oreos. Without saying a word, the guy sitting next to her reaches in, takes out a cookie and starts to eat it. She’s flabbergasted. Not wanting to make a scene, she reaches into the bag, takes out a cookie and starts to eat it. And he just smiles and nods at her.

"Apparently, he didn’t speak English. So she continues reading her paper. And a minute or two later there is more rustling. He was helping himself to another cookie. She was so angry she didn’t allow herself to say anything. But she reaches in to take another cookie. And before long they’ve come to the end of the package, and there’s only one cookie left. The man reaches in to take the last cookie, breaks it in two, pushes half across to her, eats the other half and leaves.

"Still fuming some time later when her flight is announced, the woman opens her handbag to get her ticket. And to her shocking embarrassment, she finds her pack of unopened Oreo cookies. She thought someone was eating her cookies, when in reality she was eating someone else’s cookies and didn’t even know it!"

Many of us have a lot of cookies that we think belong to us. But in truth, they belong to God and to the world and we don’t even know it.

The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. It all belongs to God. God’s cookies. God’s wallet. God’s house. God’s clothes. God’s IRA. God’s car. God’s body. It’s all God’s Stuff.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to think my stuff is mine. I tend to think I’ve earned it, or I’m entitled to it. It becomes a source of pride. I think there’s security in it. I become anxious about it. But it’s all God’s stuff. God made it. God created it. And God grants me breath every single second to live and work and enjoy God’s Stuff in order to share it with those in need and use it to make the world a better place.

Once we realize that everything belongs to God, and that all I have is to be used to help others, then my next challenge is to keep my wants from becoming needs and learn to sacrifice my wants for the meeting of others’ needs.

A business man sent the following email to his pastor:

Because I fly, I’ve always had a dream of owning an airplane one day. I got to the point where I could buy one. I also serve on the Board of Directors for a Christian ministry to street kids in Brazil. We had two facilities for boys, but none for girls. An opportunity came to purchase a piece of property for a girls’ home. There wasn’t time for a capital campaign. We had to do something immediately, and it involved a significant amount of money.

The only way I could help was to stop dreaming about my new airplane and give the airplane money to this ministry. So that’s exactly what I did. I still don’t have the airplane, and I never will. But the joy that I receive watching the girls’ ministry take off has more than made up for the absence of my airplane.

Today there are more than 60 girls who would be living on the streets of Brazil now living in a home with people who love them. So, it really wasn’t a sacrifice at all - just a redeployment of funds.

This is somebody who says, “Here’s something I want. But God, I’m going to give it up because I think there’s something else You want me to do with this.”

And when he gets to the end of his life, I don’t think he’s going to look back on his decision and think, “You know, I wish I hadn’t done that with what I had.”

It might be an interesting exercise to ask yourself: “If I were to die, would I have any regrets about my stuff?” The time to shape a life with no regrets regarding your stuff is today.

Generosity is the way to shape such a life. Generosity almost never leads to regret. Generosity enlarges our souls and expands the reach of God’s love.

I believe most people want to be generous. But fear, or the experience of losing everything, or good ole personal comfort keep us from becoming the generous persons we want to become.

We move toward becoming a generous person by:
1. Understanding that all we have belongs to God. And the God to whom all things belong is a God of extravagant generosity who gives beyond measure.
2. And then we begin to see that we have what we have in order make the world a better place, to share it with others and make a difference in their lives.
3. And we are able to share generously when we keep our wants from becoming needs and learn to sacrifice our wants for the meeting of others’ needs.

I challenge you this week to begin thinking of sacrifices and lifestyle changes you can make in order to be generous so that you can help meet the needs of others and make the world a better place.

The wallet you hold in your hand is a symbol of all your possessions. And it all belongs to God. The question is: What are doing with what you’ve been given?
_____________

1. Robert Schnase, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Abingdon, 2007, 130

September 2, 2007 - Risk-Taking Mission & Service

Pentecost 14
September 2, 2007
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
W. Gregory Pope

RISK-TAKING MISSION AND SERVICE:
A CHURCH FOR THE WORLD

Joshua 1:1-9; Hebrews 11:32-38

“To be and make disciples of Jesus Christ in authentic community for the good of the world.” So Brian McLaren says is the mission of the church.1

We have worked our way through most of this definition over the past few weeks as we’ve been considering five practices of faithful and vibrant congregations. We’re seeking authentic community through Radical Hospitality. And we’re striving to offer Meaningful Worship as one of the primary practices God uses to shape souls and transform lives. Last week we talked about Intentional Spiritual Formation, being and making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Today we talk about why. And the reason is this: We seek to practice Radical Hospitality, Meaningful Worship, and Intentional Spiritual Formation so that we might truly be the body of Christ, risking ourselves in mission and service for the sake of the world.

There are two primary ways of understanding the church2: One is to see the church as “the place where certain things happen” - worship, teaching, fellowship, meetings. You “go to church” much the same way you might go to a store. You “attend” a church the way you attend a school or theater. You “belong to a church” as you would a service club with its programs and activities. It’s a place where certain things happen.

A different understanding is to see the church as “a body of people sent on a mission.” It’s what is being called today, “the missional church,” as opposed to “the institutional church.” Unlike the “institutional” church as an organization with facilities and activities for its members, the “missional” church is conceived as a community of disciples brought together by a common calling and vocation to be a “sent people.”

The difference between these two understandings of the church comes in the question: Is the church a people sent or is it a vendor of religion? I think scripture is overwhelmingly on the side of the church as a people sent.


The Bible teaches that we are created in the imago Dei - the image of God - for the missio Dei - the mission of God. Our God is a missionary God, a sending God. The church is a missionary people, a sent people. Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

The mission of the church is the mission of God. In Christ, scripture teaches us, God is reconciling the world back to God. God’s purpose is to restore, reconcile, and heal creation.

A missional church has a global vision and its ministry is incarnational. It puts flesh and bone to the life and ministry of Jesus, and by doing so extends God’s mission in the world. It is a community of people who are committed to follow in the way of Jesus. And they invite others to follow Jesus as fellow disciples. They seek the kingdom of God and serve the kingdom of God above all else, embracing the sufferings of others and identifying with the poor.

The missional church makes mission its passion, not tradition and the past, not success and the future, not its building, not its music, not its preaching and not its program. It is not building-centered, pastor-centered, or program-centered, but community-centered, ministry-centered. It’s passion is the mission of God - the kingdom of God in Christ reconciling and recreating the world.

Theologian George Retzlaff talks about “prepositional theology.” He says Jesus gave himself FOR others, poured himself out FOR others, lived and died FOR us.

So we are the church, the Body of Christ, when we are a people FOR others, a church FOR the city of Louisville, all parts it, and for Nada and New Orleans and Morocco and Thailand and everywhere else God might be calling and sending us.

So the question we must always be asking is: Where is God calling us? What is God calling us to do?

When you look at the stories in scripture of God calling people to do something, there is a pattern.

This morning we heard God’s calling to Joshua to be the successor to Moses and lead the Israelites out of the wilderness and into the promised land - a risky, daunting task. There are some similarities in the ways in which God called both Moses and Joshua.

There is the calling to a task:
“Moses, go tell Pharaoh to let my people go and lead them out of Egypt across the wilderness toward the Promised Land.”
“Joshua, Moses is dead. I need you to lead my people out of the wilderness into the Promised Land.”


Following the call to a task, there is almost always an objection by the one being called. Moses says he can’t approach Pharaoh because he’s not a good speaker. He is like many of the other prophets who are called by God. They don’t want to do it because they feel they can’t. They don’t believe they have the resources to do what God is calling them to do.

But we can never determine our response to God’s calling based on the resources we have. “What are our resources?” is not the question to ask. The question to ask is: “What is God calling us to do? Where is God leading us?” And as we follow God’s leading it’s up to God to provide the resources.

Moses, Joshua and all the great saints of the Bible were afraid their resources would not match God’s calling. But it is the testimony of God’s people that God did provide what they needed.

And what God called them to do was often bold and costly. Listen to how the writer of Hebrews describes people who say yes to God:

I do not have time to tell about . . . [those] who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies . . . Others were tortured and refused to be released . . . Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword . . . the world was not worthy of them (Heb 11:32-38).

And some of you are afraid to teach children or youth in Sunday School or spend time in the nursery. I promise you: we do not give them stones or saws or swords! But there is always a risk of some kind when God calls.

As you listen to that account from Hebrews, tell me, how high a value would you say God places on making sure people who follow him lead comfortable lives? It seems that God wants to use us, wants us to grow up, wants us to be strong and wise and courageous. God doesn’t appear to be terribly interested in making sure we’re comfortable. As John Ortberg says, God would not make a good flight attendant.3

Whenever God calls someone to do something in scripture, rarely is the response, “Wonderful! What an opportunity! Fabulous! What a great challenge!” No. Almost always the response is fear.

In fact, if there is a challenge in front of you, or in front of us as a congregation, a course of action that could cause us to grow spiritually and that would be helpful to the people around us, but we find ourselves scared about it, there’s a real good chance that God is in that challenge.4


God knows people get scared, so God makes them a promise. God said to Joshua, “Have I not commanded you? Have I not placed a mission before you? Go and do not be afraid or discouraged, but be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” And every time God makes that promise of presence and provision God comes through.

So what is God calling us to do?

At the heart of what God calls all of us to do is to be bearers of the good news of the gospel.

And what is the good news of the Gospel?

The Gospel is that in Christ, God is on a mission recreating, renewing, reconciling, and restoring a broken and fallen world. And we are invited to join God in that mission.

Robert Schnase has been a helpful resource to me in thinking through these five sermons on congregational practice. Risk-Taking Mission and Service is his phrase. He says we call it Risk-Taking Mission and Service because of what is opposite Risk-Taking - things like Safe, Predictable, Comfortable, Certain, Convenient - words that do not describe the ministry of Jesus who said, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:24).

Risk-Taking Mission and Service includes the ministry projects, efforts, and work people do to make a positive difference in the lives of others for the purposes of Christ, whether or not those we serve ever be a part of the community of faith. But failure to practice some form of Risk-Taking Mission and Service will result in a deterioration of the church’s vitality and ability to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

The practice of Risk-Taking Mission and Service reminds us that congregations are not ends in themselves. Our goal is not to preserve and perpetuate ourselves. We are simply resources God uses to change lives and transform the world.

God places congregations in a world troubled by many challenges. Schools struggle to provide basic education, and many children fall through the cracks. Criminal justice systems are overcrowded and do little to restore people to functional, positive participation in society. Medical services are overburdened and unprepared to serve unmet needs, especially of the poor, the uninsured, and the unemployed. Immigration issues and environmental threats intensify fears. Drugs, alcohol abuse, gambling addictions, family violence, and overwhelming poverty rob people of hope. A majority of the people with whom we share the world live with incredible uncertainty because of poverty, hunger, illness, and war.

As followers of Christ, we cannot live as if these things have nothing to do with us. Christ moves us closer to suffering, not farther away. We cannot walk around oblivious to suffering, ignoring it and denying it like those who preceded the Samaritan down the road to Jericho. We can’t moan about how somebody ought to do something. We cannot just pray for those who suffer, asking God to do for us what God created us to do for God.5


God didn’t tell Joshua just to pray about. God told him to be strong and courageous. We have to be courageous enough to do something. To get involved with our community and our world. To call our government to its task and stop the immoral amount of money being spent on weapons and war to obtain a security that will never come, and instead spend a trillion dollars taking care of the living who are sick and poor, and whose children go to schools with inadequate resources.

We are called to Risk-Taking ministries that push us out of our comfort zones to make a real difference in the lives of people. Ministries that require hands-on, face-to-face engagement with the needs of people we might ordinarily not come to know. Outreach ministries that make the greatest impact on the lives of people in our community who are not a part of our church. Service and friendship to those in our community who have the least power - the poor, the unemployed, the stranger, the hungry, the homeless, the abused, the addicted, the immigrant, the victim of violence.

There are many opportunities to reach out through the ministries of our church. We touch people’s lives through United Crescent Hill Ministries, English as a Second Language, Divorce Recovery, and Choices homes for women and children. And there are many more ways in which we can participate in God’s mission for the world. Our task is to pray and discern where God is calling us.

What really matters when God calls people to do something is not whether we feel inadequate. Of course we will because we are inadequate. That’s why God promises to go with us. What matters is our decision. Only people, only churches, who say yes to challenge, demand, and risk are ever fully alive.

Missional Christians and churches will be people of great joy and hope. We will not give in to cynicism and despair because we have discerned the mission of God in the world. We see with the eyes of the heart that God in Christ is at work in the world reconciling, redeeming, recreating and renewing. Our strength is in the conviction of God’s mission and in the promise of God’s presence with us. Our delight is in being a part of it.6

So: Are we willing to risk ourselves and be a church for the world? Prepositional theology. Christ gave himself FOR the world. Will we risk ourselves FOR the world? It begins in your heart and mine. Will we offer objections and excuses? Or will we say yes and follow?

___________________________

1. Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, Zondervan, 2004, 107
2. Darrell L. Guder, ed., Missional Church, Eerdmans, 2001, 80-83
3. John Ortberg, When the Game is Over It All Goes Back in the Box, Zondervan, 2007, 141
4. Ibid., 142
5. Robert Schnase, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Abingdon, 2007, 83, 100
6. Daniel Vestal, It’s Time, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, 2002, 30

QUESTIONS

1. How has a mission/service project shaped your own life? What is the most unexpected place to which your faith in Christ has taken you in order to make a difference in someone else’s life?
2. In what ways would you like to see CHBC take a risk in mission and service?
3. What are you unwilling to give up or change about CHBC in order to see 100 new people under the age of 40 over the next three years become involved in the life of our church, seeking to become followers of Jesus?