As we become a church, a community of people learning to follow Jesus in sync even while apart, we are working to be commited to five key things. This week, we’re looking to be commited to generosity in our resources. We want to be known for this as a community.
One of the first church leaders, Paul, wrote this to Timothy, who he was mentoring to lead churches after him:
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. – 1 Timothy 6:17-19 ESV
We asked yesterday if you knew anyone who worshipped money, and how you could tell. That’s exactly what Paul is warning about here. He doesn’t want the church to be a community where people set their hopes on material things. If we do, we will quickly find they are not eternally safe. Stocks fall, companies bankrupt, mortgages default, technology goes obsolete, and goods rot and rust away.
A right attitude about money and posessions doesn’t start with rules, principles or anything on this earth, rather it starts with God himself. If you put your faith and trust in him first, you will see money and material differently as a result. We’ll look at four shifts in our thinking:
It All Comes from God
God is not trying to take money away from us. We are being invited to share in God’s work and to commit our resources to this work. This invitation is always a privilege. It comes from our need for God, not God’s need for us
The book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell says something that Chrsitians have known all along. He looks at highly successful people in our world, and searches for the origins of their success. Not once does he find a self-made person who engineered 100% of their own success. Each had unique opportunities handed to them, that allowed them to excel. This is how Christians have always known our lives to work!
This is a shift: We are now managing the money, time and talents that have been entrusted to us by God, in order to make sure that God’s work is done. When applied to personal finances, to how we use our time and our natural skills and abilities, this is an absolutely radical concept. It goes to the very core of who we are and how we see ourselves.
We Need to Give
The conventional wisdom concerning money is that we have to learn how to hang on to it, not how to give it away.
We need to give in order to be free: The seductive power of money is undeniable. But it is disarmingly subtle. In ensnares us without our even being aware of it. It wraps chains around our hearts, our minds, our imagination without our even noticing….
There is only one way. The power of money can only be broken by learning to give it away. The basic question is simply, Will I control my money, or will my money control me ?
When we begin to give, the chains begin to break. This can be very uncomfortable, frequently it is painful. Yet once the chains are broken we experience the sheer exhilaration of freedom. Only then do we realize how tightly the chains were wrapped around our heart. Only then can we really understand what Jesus meant when he said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” We were created to give, not to hoard…Jesus wants us to be free.
We need to give in order to find fulfillment:
Enough always seems to be just a little bit more than I have right now. A study was done by an economist called George Barna and it shows that most people seriously believe that they need approximately $8-10,000 more a year to live the way they would like to and no matter how much their income increases they still believe they need 8k-10k more. They never find it.
People who give of their time and resources in service of others will tell you time and time again how incredibly fulfilling it is…that happiness doesn’t come from wealth, financial or otherwise, but rather because they are happy with what God has given, they are able to be contented and happy in all things, and that is a kind of wealth in itself that overflows into all parts of life.
Question: Have you ever found freedom or fulfillment in giving? Why?
Read the Bible in Sync Today
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Hi. Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan, your host for the daily challenges, and today is Thursday so it's the day we try to put into action what we've been learning all week. In continuation of our series called "Reset," we've been seeing how Jesus resets our views of compassion from something that we do for personal gain, whatever it might be - political gain or giving volunteer hours or just because it feels like something we're supposed to do - to something that we do because of Jesus, because Jesus has shown compassion to us and because Jesus loves others and wants compassion to be shown to them, as well, and through His followers here on earth. We saw yesterday how we are sent to engage with those who are hurting and harassed and helpless in our world and show compassion in Jesus' name.
So what are some practical ways we can do this? Well, there are many and I'm going to challenge you at the end of the day to try something for the next few weeks. We're in a time that the church has traditionally called Lent, the forty days before Easter, minus some Sundays, and that's been a time that Christians have traditionally tried to refocus their efforts of following Jesus, tried to give something up in order to focus more on God. What I would encourage you to do is not to just give something up but to pick up something new - compassionate service to others. That's going to look different in each context. I'm going to suggest a few things that Redeem the Commute is involved in but you're going to find ways that you can personally show compassionate service to others in your own context as well.
Some of the ways you can get involved right now in Redeem the Commute's efforts to show compassion to others include an even that we're sponsoring in May. It's called Running for Home and another new church starting in Whitby sponsors this race every year and we're one of their church sponsors who help them put on the event and it's a run that raises money for Habitat for Humanity. Maybe you're familiar with them; they build homes for those who might not be able to have a home any other way. You can obviously show compassionate service by getting involved in Habitat, helping build a home or by raising money by being part of the Running for Home race or you could volunteer with Redeem the Commute in helping make the event happen.
Now, Redeem the Commute also offers some direct compassionate service to people in our community. We run a few major events and the formula we seem to have at all our events is that we do something fun and family related, that we make sure we are showing generosity and care to others like we've collected food bank donations and toy drive donations, and also that we always include the reason we do it - the Gospel. We're going to be using that again in planning an Easter event soon. If you'd like to be part of planning that event, and showing compassionate service to others through it, get in touch with me. I'd love to have you as part of our team as we bring together what looks to be a really fun event this Easter. We also have opportunities to get involved at the event. If you'd like to come and just enjoy the event you'll have an opportunity to give and serve others through that, just like our other events.
Now, these events cost money and so one way you can show compassionate service to people in our community is by supporting Redeem the Commute. Our mobile ap and website directly help people's marriages and parenting skills when they're under a lot of stress from the busy lifestyle of commuters. Or, you can support us in order to support some of these events that we put on. At our Christmas event, we calculated it cost about ten dollars a family to host and so you can find ways to support us in putting on our Easter event, as well. Watch for information coming out soon on how much it costs per family and how you can sponsor a family in enjoying our event.
I mentioned food banks earlier that we've supported in the past and a food bank is a great way to show compassionate service to others. If you live in Whitby, there's the Deacon's Cupboard at All Saint's church. If you live in Ajax, there's the Salvation Army Hope Community Church and if you live in Pickering, there's the St. Paul's on the Hill Pickering Food Bank. All these are great ways to directly give compassionate service to others in our community who might be hungry.
And, finally, you're probably aware personally of those you meet every day, who might seem risky, but who you're called, by Jesus, to serve with compassionate care. Find a way bless them in some way; bring them some food, bring them some baking. Ask if you can help them shovel their driveway or clean up from the ice storm. Whatever it is you're probably aware of something they're struggling with and a way you can help as a follower of Jesus even if they never know it's coming from you.
Challenge: So your challenge for this week is to intentionally commit, during the next few weeks leading up to Easter, to show some kind of weekly or daily rhythm of compassionate service. Find something you can do each week, or something you can do each day, that will bless and serve others simply because Jesus loves them like He loves you.
Have a great one. Or discuss maybe with your group how your going to put this challenge into practice and don't forget we're reading the Bible in sync as a community so check our website now to see what today's reading is. Bye for now.
When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again?
The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate.
What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives:
Reset: Goals
Reset: Time
Reset: Money
Reset: Work
Reset: Body & Food
Reset: Sex & Marriage
Reset: Family
Reset: Compassion
Reset: Nature
Reset: Society
Reset: Death
Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.
