Abundance, Not Scarcity

Like all our beliefs, the attitudes and dispositions we have toward money are largely shaped by our past – our family of origin, our cultural background, and our church experiences. In Luke’s gospel, we see at least 4 different ways of viewing money. Like the Rich Fool in Luke 12, some of us believe that the good life is found when we hoard the most for ourselves. Others of us live more like the Rich Young Ruler in Luke 18; we falsely assume that God will always bless us financially as a reward for our faithfulness. Or we doubt God’s generosity towards us altogether and live more like the Older Brother in Luke 15. But in Luke 21, we see a picture of someone who really trusts in the God of abundance and not in the uncertainty of wealth. A widow, giving all that she has, is commended by Jesus as a picture of what true generosity looks like. We too can reshape how we view money and the way we give by reorienting our minds around the truths of scripture, reshaping our habits to reflect generosity, and participating in a community of Jesus-followers committed to doing the same.

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 On October 30th, 1938, CBS aired The War of the Worlds to cities across America. Anybody know this story? I remember learning this in drama class. Yes, I took drama. Uh, and Orson Welles made an adaptation of H.

G. Wells sci fi novel for Halloween season. And so the program, remember this is the time where everybody just had radios. It began with an intro. Uh, letting them know this is going to be a play, this is not real. But, the majority of people did not tune in at that moment. And so, after the intro was done, the rest of the episode was presented in the style of the news.

The newscaster voice was on. You know, they had like a music playing and they cut it, they interrupted it. Guys, sorry, I have to interrupt, but crazy things are happening. Aliens have invaded America. And it’s this whole story about these Martians have gone to Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. And as the whole hour plus long episode goes, they start describing this alien.

It has heat rays that are killing people and they’re they’re emitting poisonous gas. And so they’re just like recording and news format, people dying left and right, people panicking. And then in reality, the people hearing the radio were just going berserk. They were panic was in the streets. Legend actually says Which people debate on this is true or not.

A lady heard the news, and went to her stash of poison, which we all have apparently, right? We don’t, I don’t, that’s kind of weird. Grabbed some poison, drank the poison because she said, I will not die at the hands of an alien. And so that actually created a whole Chaos for the next many years FCC had to step in there had to be new rules When you do things on the radio and I think they kind of need to do that for tv news today Because people are freaking out anyways, and so this was uh quite a moment in human history and it really speaks to Like a humbling reminder to all of humanity that your perception of reality is running and often ruining your life.

And changing your perception is actually a key theme in all of Jesus’s teachings. Jesus confronts us over and over and says, hey, what you think is true is actually killing you. And so he confronts our realities. He would say crazy things like those who humble themselves will be exalted, but those who exalt themselves will be humbled.

Jesus tells a group of his disciples, Hey, I know you think the world works a certain way, but actually it’s the last who will be first, and it’s the first who will be last. And the kind of phrase we’ve been wrestling with, this perception of reality that’s hard to fathom, is Jesus words in Acts 20 when he says, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

See, changing your perception of reality is actually kind of, uh, a teacher’s job, uh, when it comes to the scriptures, and it’s priority number one in, in God’s work of transformation in your life. But! In the era we live in today, I think most of us assume it stops there. And what we kind of rally around in our church is that you definitely have to keep changing your perception of reality, but that’s just getting started.

James Bryan Smith, a wonderful author and professor of theology, he summarizes what I would call our strategy for change, how we think people change to become like Jesus, which is the whole point of our church. In his book, The Good and Beautiful God, it is such a helpful read. But look at this quote. He says,   📍 The things Jesus thought.

Do the things Jesus did and spend time with like-minded people. We will become like him and it will not be difficult. I believe there is a reliable method of changing our hearts. It is not complicated, nor is it difficult. It does not rely on willpower.   We begin with the triangle of transformation. Let me just say, then he points out four things, and I know what you’re thinking.

Triangles have three sides, not four. In this chart, I should have put it up here, it’s, each has a side and then the fourth one is in the middle. So stay with me with this imagery. He says   📍 we begin with the triangle of transformation. It involves four basic elements. One, changing the stories in our minds.

Our perception of reality. Two, engaging in new practices. Three, in reflection and dialogue with others who are on the same path. And four, all under the leading of the Holy Spirit.  So we are engaging in what’s called the practice of generosity. And we’re trying to do exactly that. We are seeking to be formed by generosity with that formula.

It’s just in four parts. First of all is stories. I actually love sharing Mike and Grace’s story. It helps us change our understanding of reality and how God works, but also the stories that we’ll find in scripture, which we’re going to read a lot of today. Second is practices. We are a practice based church.

We believe in not just hearing something, but doing it. And so each and every week for this, uh, generosity practice, we’re going to give you an action to take so that you can take what’s in your mind and make it a reality in your body. Three community. This is why we have together groups. Can I just say I’m so encouraged to be your pastor We every single group almost every single group added somebody this week because you guys are taking that steps Some of the groups did it because they’re already full and we also added a whole other group So I am so encouraged and we believe the youth group is on the way starting in September.

We’re excited about that So in community though, I love to hear the stories this week. You guys are amazing wrestling with generosity, talking about your preconceived notions, and working through it has been incredible. And number four, of course, this is all through the power of the Holy Spirit. I was reading John 16 in my quiet time this morning.

Just reminded, it is the Holy Spirit who does this holy work. It’s our job to surrender to Him and allow Him to do what only He can do. Now, it’s not on your screen, but to quote James Bryan Smith one more time, he later says in that same introduction, when new ideas new practices, and new social settings are adopted, change happens.

And that’s what we believe. That’s what we’re betting on. We, we think generosity is hard to do. We have a lot of preconceived notions that makes it difficult to even actually partake in. And so we are just trying to create a community based on the Word of God to hear new stories, engage in new practices in this new community, and we believe change will begin.

So this is week two of our generosity practice. It’s only four weeks, and we’re going to spend most of the time today, just like we did last week, thinking about the stories, rewriting our understanding of God. of God’s generosity and ours. So the definition is here on the screen. What is generosity? Well, our working theory is   📍 the practice of generosity is living like disciples.

If you were here last week, that’s what we covered. We are disciples, not donors who trust the God of abundance. That’s today’s topic. Lord willing by giving like stewards. Who tithe to God’s kingdom?  Let me just say it one more time. We probably will still have more questions than answers But I pray that today is a step in the right direction.

Now as we prepared for this teaching today I just want to acknowledge Like all of our beliefs, our attitudes and fears of money are usually rooted and largely shaped from our past. So as we’re going to preach this today, I know some of you have family origin stories that you think about money a certain way.

A lot of us, we grew up in culture. And so the culture, movies, songs, just friends have taught us to think about money a certain way. And also to be honest, your church experience, maybe the, you had a pastor who is really abusive or manipulative. And so you come with all of this baggage. And so, because of all of that, it is really hard to trust in the God of abundance.

I just ask you to lean in with me. I think this is the biggest obstacle for you and I to become generous people, but I think through the word of God, we can overcome this and have a new perspective about money. So today we’re going to be in the gospel of Luke and we’re going to look at four different attitudes towards money.

Three of them are running our lives and are ruining our lives, but one of them can run your life and lead to abundance and joy and the life Jesus always has to offer. Let’s pray and then we will get going. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank you for just this community. Thank you for our desire to learn from the scriptures.

God, we just declare even in this moment, we are submitting ourselves to you. We are under your authority of God’s word. And we just ask you, God, to give us. Give us the, uh, the freedom to confess where we’ve gone wrong, where we have thought wrong. And Jesus, please begin to reshape our attitudes and our hearts so that it looks more like you.

In Jesus name. Everybody says, Amen. Amen, amen. So, let me give context to Luke before we read a lot of it. In the book of Luke, Jesus has a lot to say about money. And I have one theory. First of all, money is a great correlation to understand how much you actually trust God. But Luke in particular, if you know his story, he was funded by a wealthy man.

Anybody know the name of the man that funded Luke to do this gospel discovery and investigation? Theophilus, okay, Theophilus was a wealthy person. So Luke’s first primary audience obviously was written for more than him, but he was writing this for Theophilus. So as he’s writing to a wealthy man, it makes sense for Luke to record every time Jesus talks about money.

Hey Theophilus, you have a lot of money. Jesus has a lot to say about it. And I’d say that’s a pretty gutsy move. He’s paying all of his bills, but he’s saying hey, I just want to make sure you know what money, uh, what the kingdom looks like for money. But also so we established that You’ll see here, Jesus doesn’t talk, just talk about money in Luke.

He confronts our conceptions about money all the time. He likes to say, you heard it was said, but I say to you, this is one of his primary ways of teaching. And I think what’s helpful for us to understand is the Hebrews understanding of money before we begin to read. And Hebrews understanding of money is obviously the old Testament.

What does the Bible say about money and possessions? This is a very quick old Testament intro to money and possessions. Stay with me. If you are interested in this topic, pick up in our recommended read, Craig Blomberg’s poverty, neither poverty nor riches has a way better exhaustive for the two nerds in this room.

Go buy that book. Now. Let me just summarize what the Bible, the Old Testament says about money. First of all, you have the Torah or the Pentateuch. These are the first five books of the Bible. Within the first five books, you have stories like Abraham and Moses and Isaac and all of the like. When you read those stories, you’ll come away with a certain understanding of wealth.

First of all, you will believe after reading the Torah that wealth is good. According to those stories, and God actually desires to bless his people with material possessions. But he also requires that they use those blessings to bless all the peoples in all of the earth. That’s what you’ll conclude in the Narrative Sections of the Torah.

There’s Legal Sections, where Moses gives laws to the people. God gives these laws on how to live and to deal with possessions. And what’s interesting about the Legal Sections of the Torah is obedience seems to be tied to material possessions. That the more you obey God, There seems to be this correlation of you having more, but also in the legal sections, you were warned, do not accumulate too much.

And you have to, if you’re given the gift of wealth, you have to take care of the poor. Now, rush ahead to the prophets of the old Testament. Most of the prophets there, they’re, you know, calling out people for their sin. And one of the major sins You’ll read in the Old Testament is people’s greed. Economic injustice is a huge issue that prophets kind of point to.

It’s one of the reasons why the people of God were exiled. They were not using their money rightly. They were overlooking the widows and the poor and the orphan. And Jesus has, excuse me, it’s still Jesus, but God in the Old Testament has a lot to say against that. Lastly, you have the wisdom literature of the Bible.

of the Old Testament, things like Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. There you will read time and time again, wealth is a reward for faithfulness and wealth comes when you work hard. Proverbs talk a lot about the lazy man and they say the lazy man is a poor man. But also, there’s several warnings against the rich.

Now, I don’t think that’s a full, exhaustive, biblical understanding of money. That is just a broad overview of what the Old Testament says. Theologians call this progressive revelation, and no, I’m not getting political. Progressive revelation is this idea That God introduces a concept or doctrine in the Old Testament, and as time goes on, God continues to unveil the full meaning of that doctrine.

I believe that is the case when it comes to money, giving, possessions, and wealth. You’ll see a kernel of understanding and truth, and it will blossom into something even much more compelling and beautiful, especially in light of the work Jesus did for us on the cross. All that to say, As the Hebrews are hearing about money from Jesus, Jesus is usually confronting this major lie.

More wealth equals more righteousness. They all assume the rich, today, we think the rich people are the bad people. Because of culture and movies and all that. Back then, if you’re rich, God loves you. Everything you do is right. And so Jesus is actually trying to confront and confound this. Okay, so now, Enough of Trey.

Let’s read a lot of the Bible. Okay, so let’s start at Luke 12 verse 13 We’re gonna look at our first of four case studies of how people deal with money Verse 13, someone from the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, tell my brother to invite the, to divide the inheritance with me. What’s funny is this guy is actually interrupting Jesus in the middle of a talk.

Please don’t do that this morning. Talk to me after, but it makes for an awkward situation, but I love how Jesus just rolls with it. Friend, he said to him who appointed me a judge or an arbiter over you. He then told them, watch out and be on guard against all greed. That is actually the best way to summarize.

Summarize last week’s teaching. Notice the double warning here, not just watch out, but be on guard. And then he says to guard against what? Against greed, which is the insatiable need of more and more possessions. And I love his one line here that is just such a good teaching. He says, because one’s life, one’s purpose is not in the abundance of his possessions, aka stuff will not satisfy you like you think.

Verse 16, then he told them a parable, a rich man, a rich man’s land was very productive. Notice this as well. It’s not the rich man who was productive. It was his land who was productive. The Hebrew understanding is that the blessings from the land come from God. So it’s not this rich man being brilliant.

He was just receiving the blessings of God and his provision. But look at how he responds in verse 17. He thought to himself. Notice how many times you see I the rest of this passage. Jesus is trying to show how egotistical this human is. What should I do since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops?

And also the Hebrews would have understood this guy is silly. What do you mean? What do you do? In the Bible, in Leviticus 19, for example, the scripture say if you have a crop, Abundance. If you have surplus, you don’t build bigger barns. What you’re supposed to do is leave it for the poor. Leviticus 19 says exactly that.

Leave the margin. Don’t harvest the outer edge. Allow the poor to come and eat and make sure all of the community is taken care of. So this man looks foolish. He looks ignorant. He doesn’t know his Torah. Verse 18, I will do this. He said, I’ll tear down my barns. Notice this level of waste and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods There.

Is he thinking at all about his community? No. Me, myself, and Irene. Okay, verse 19. Jim Carrey fans. Okay, then, I’ll say to myself, You have many goods stored up for many years. Notice this scarcity mentality. He feels the impulse, I have to store up because eventually everything will run out. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.

Very much a mantra of today. But God said to him, you fool, this very night, your life is demanded of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? That whole cliche, you can’t take it with you. Verse 21, that’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and it’s not rich toward God.

So what is so far the rich fool’s perception of reality? A few things, very American. Good life’s probably found in early retirement and you want to get to the point where all you do is consume, not contribute to society, right? This other idea of blessing is if you get blessed today, it doesn’t mean you’ll be blessed tomorrow.

So hurry up and hoard all that you have because you never know if it’s your last time. This is his perspective. And what does Jesus say? You’re foolish. Now let’s look at the next story, Luke 18. So flip over a few pages. It’s also a very famous story. If you were raised in church, Luke 18 verse 18, it’s the parable or the, sorry, the story of the rich young ruler, a ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Why do you call me good? Jesus asked him, no one is good except God alone. And now he gives a diagnostic verse 20, you know, the commandments he now shares five out of the 10 do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother. I believe Jesus in his wisdom.

He’s setting this man up. He knows this guy’s ignorance. Look at verse 21, how he replied, I have kept all these from my youth. He said, now with our understanding of the new Testament, is it true that he kept all of those five commandments? Probably not, right? It doesn’t take long for us to realize how we have not always honored our father and mother, right?

Read Romans three. Paul says we have all sin and fall short to the glory of God, but I find it fascinating. Jesus doesn’t. He doesn’t wrestle with him on that. He says, okay, sure, you can think that. But now he gets to the heart of the issue. His main idol in verse 22, when Jesus heard this, he told him, you still lack one thing.

So all you have and distribute it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. After he heard this, he became extremely sad because he was very rich. It’s okay to be sad. This whole idea of being extremely sad shows how attached he was to his wealth. His wealth was his identity.

His whole trust structure was his identity. was put into money. And so he felt rejected and so sad because God was calling him to take away the one idol that he had. Verse 24, seeing that he became sad, Jesus said, how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to inherit, or sorry, to enter the kingdom of God.

If you remember last week, what did we say about greed? It’s an invisible poison that puts us in an impossible position to love God and others. This is exhibit A of what, of how that happens. This rich young ruler thought he loved God, but he really honestly loved his money more than anything. So what is his perception of reality?

I think he would go to Jesus to say, Yes, I need salvation for my soul, but don’t touch my stuff. And that’s a lot of our perceptions, if we’re willing to be honest. There’s, uh, history. I find this fascinating. The knights in the medieval times were getting baptized, and many of the knights decided to get baptized in their full armor, but they also got baptized with their sword.

Can I just say, talk about stressful as a pastor, baptizing somebody with a sword in their hand. But what they would do as they got baptized, they made sure to keep the sword above the water the entire time. Which I kind of like the honesty. They were communicating, Jesus, I want you to save me. I’m surrendering you as my Lord in every area of life, except my insatiable need for violence.

And in this way, the rich young ruler is kind of doing that same thing. He’s pulling out his wallet saying, let me get baptized. But man, water better not touch that wallet because the Lord’s not going to touch it. And so this guy walks away sad. Because that’s his perception of reality. He would rather have money.

Then to have Christ a few more Luke 15 Luke 15, starting in verse 28. If you are familiar with Luke 15, it’s the famous parable of the prodigal son. Remember the younger brother says, I’m waiting for you to die, father, you won’t, so just give me your inheritance as if you died. And then he goes and squanders it, and he lives with the pigs, now he’s coming back home.

Saying to the father, I’m not your son anymore, but let me be your slave. But the father is so generous, lets him in, throws a huge party to celebrate. And now the older brother, the good brother, the firstborn, as I’m finding out, the firstborn kids, they’re just, anyways, I’m not going to step into that. They were, he was following everything.

And look how mad he was about what the father was doing. Verse 28. Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in to the party. So his father came out and pleaded with him. But he replied to his father, look, I have been slaving. Notice how his understanding of his relationship with his dad, I have been slaving many years for you and I have never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never gave me, you’re not generous. He’s saying you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the first. Fattened calf for him. So a fattened calf is much better than a goat. We know that in queen creek.

Amen We understand that keep going. I don’t need to contextualize that one verse 31 son notice This father’s response which we’re supposed to realize it’s also our heavenly father’s response son He said to him you are always with me And everything I have is yours, which we do see all throughout the new testament for those who are in christ Jesus we have his full inheritance verse 32, but we had to celebrate and rejoice Because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again.

He was lost and is found. So what is the older brother’s perception of reality? I know this is a lot, stick with me. His perception is that the father isn’t generous. How dare I ask my father for a feast? My job is to be his slave, not his son. And he brought that kind of understanding and would never ask for anything from God.

Now, let’s look at our last example. Luke 21. I will say, ladies, you look great today because these are three men who are just failing and now our one example is a blessed widow. So, I don’t know. I’m a girl dad. So maybe I gravitated towards that on accident. Men, you’re great. Okay, just not these men. Verse one of Luke chapter 21.

He, being Jesus, looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. So they kind of do offering like we do. We just have it in the back on your way out or in, you just put it in there. It’s not the passing around of the bowls. And so this was the context. They’re in the temple.

And so they’re doing their tradition of putting in money. And so he also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. There’s a lot of speculation as to how much this is. Uh, people say it’s between 2 to 50. I just think it was so beautiful. I didn’t know this was planned when Grace shared her story about giving all five.

I think that’s a, a wonderful illustration. It just showed, like, it’s not like this was a million dollars, but for this woman, this widow, it’s all she had. Verse three, truly I tell you, he said, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. Now, did she put in more cash? No, but she did put in more trust because she gave it all showing her belief and trust in God.

Verse four, for all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus. So it’s stuff they didn’t even need. It wouldn’t even hurt when they gave it away. But she, out of her poverty. Has put in all she had to live on. I love this invitation, by the way. Being generous has nothing to do with how much money you make.

It’s how much trust you put in. In giving to people what you do have. So, the last question here, what is the widow’s perception of reality? Well, I believe she viewed money and possessions in three ways. One, it’s a gift from God. This isn’t mine. You’ll find anytime you like, somebody gives me a gift, it’s so easy for me to re gift it, because it wasn’t mine in the first place, right?

It’s kind of our issue with the government. Anyways, right, give it to me, cool, it’s whatever, I can do whatever I want with it. It just becomes easier when you realize it’s a gift from God. Two, I think she also believed it was cared for by God. So, the, the rich fool thought he had to preserve it himself.

This widow’s like, God’s going to take care of me, he gave me this gift, he’ll sustain me. And the third thing, the widow’s perception of reality, is anytime I receive a gift, it’s available to other people. As opposed to these rich fools who were hoarding it. So,  with these four stories in mind, are you still with me today?

I want to, thank you, I want to put up a graph. of the four ways you and I can perceive money. Now remember, your perception of reality is running and often ruining your life. What is your perception of reality? So the first is you have to, you have to either be this or that. You’re either depending on God in all things in life, including your possessions, or you are depending on stuff.

And one way to, uh, describe this biblically, God would, uh, the Jesus in the Gospels would say, you’re either loving God or you’re loving money. I didn’t use that language. Not that I’m smarter than God. Please hear me. But I do think when we hear this, we’re a little bit more willing to admit that we depend on stuff.

If we say, do you love God or love anything else? We as Christians will all say, we love God, of course. But the reality is some of us are depending on stuff more than we’d like to admit. So these are the options we have. Uh, one way to understand, because again, we all need. stuff. We all need to pay for rent.

Like this is a reality in life, but are you depending on it? In other words, we asked this question last week, when it comes to stuff or God, who is the one that is calming your fears? And who is the one you believe will create your future? Is it money or is it God? That will help answer which one you’re leaning on the most.

What I’m praying for is that we can, uh, kind of say in unison what this proverb says about money. Here’s a great view, I think, about wealth. Give me neither poverty nor wealth. Feed me with the food I need. Otherwise, and here’s why he realizes it’s a warning, I need to depend on God and I don’t want to begin to depend on stuff.

He says, otherwise I might have too much and deny you. Right? Why do I pray for something if I could just pay for something? Right? So saying, who is the Lord? So wealth can make you forget your need for God. Or what happens if I’m poor? I might have nothing and still profaning the name of my God. So a good, like, helpful view of money is like, God, just give me what I need.

Help me just live in abundance, but not in like over wealth and greed taking my heart away, but also I’d love to have food on the table. So depending on God or depending on stuff, I think that’s a good verse to summarize depending on God. Next slide. Now. That’s you have to pick this or this. You can’t pick both, but also you can pick either having a scarcity mentality or an abundance mentality, scarcity mentality.

The future is not bright. Everything’s about to go bad. You probably are freaked out with the stock market this last week. Right. And that’s okay. I know a lot of people you’re about to retire. That’s a real reality. I don’t want to overlook that, but also scarcity mentality. The sky is always falling abundance mentality.

God has taken care of me up to this point. He will continue to God has blessed my neighbor. He will bless me as well. There’s more than enough to go around. Okay. So I would say this whole idea of an abundance mentality, I think, um, which by the way, biblical language would be a healthy eye versus an unhealthy high eye as we see in Luke 11.

But I don’t think we all of a sudden have an abundance mentality from wishful thinking. I think that’s what most people try to convince. Let’s just hope that we believe and it will happen. I believe you can come, you can, maintain or possess an abundance mentality with proper theology. A more robust understanding of God and his attributes will create an abundance mentality in your life.

For example, the scriptures are full of sharing this grand story that we serve a God who is not stingy. Jesus says he causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. You see in the Psalms that God is beyond rich. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and he even owns the hills. I love the stories of miracles in the Bible, like the widow’s jar of oil.

It never runs out. Communicating God is a giver who never runs out when he fed the 5, 000, which those are just the men, so probably 20, 000, how many baskets were left over 12 God knew the exact need and he said, I’m going to show off and give even more. This is who God is in the scriptures. He loves to give.

He rushes to forgive. In fact, you may have heard the verse for God. So loved the world that he gave his one and only son. God is a giving God who never runs out. And Jesus tries to make that point in his sermon on the mountain. He says in Matthew six 33, seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all of these things.

will be taken care of for you. Let me just share quickly a best real life example between the scarce. Oh, nope, not this again. Okay, not yet. I don’t want you to cheat. Scarcity mentality versus the abundance mentality. It would be Sea of Galilee versus the Dead Sea. So quick geography lesson, the Jordan River, which is where Jesus got baptized.

flows through the Sea of Galilee and also feeds to the Dead Sea. But these seas couldn’t be any more different. The Sea of Galilee is bursting with life. Many believed, especially in that time, the Sea of Galilee had every type of fish imaginable. This would feed everybody around that region. It was so much life and food.

The Dead Sea, did you know it’s 40 times saltier than the ocean? Anybody been to the Dead Sea? Cool. Me too. We’re the cool ones in this room. All right. So what’s cool is you can literally do the pencil move. If you do this in the water, what’s going to happen? You’re going to go under and, and, uh, the dead sea, you’re just floating.

You’re just bobbing. You can’t go under. Cause it’s so richly filled with salt. And as a result, nothing lives in it. In fact, they believe this dead sea is going to be gone in our lifetime. It’s pretty crazy how quickly it’s dissipating, but what’s the difference. The sea of Galilee has an entrance point.

and an exit. Okay. It has, it’s receiving and it’s also giving. And as a result, it has more than enough life. A scarcity mentality is much like the Dead Sea. It has an entrance point, I will receive, but it has no exit. has no place to give the rest. It hoards and never gives and it’s nothing but death as a result.

Even nature shows us this principle. So as gospel people, where should we be on the graph? Probably up here, right? We should have a dependence on God with an abundance mentality, but let’s be honest. We all have room to grow. Let me show you the four different views we have of money based off of what we just read.

The first view is the way of the world. The way I would describe the way of the world is you’re depending on the scarcity of stuff. The rich fool in Luke 12 believed, okay, I have this abundance, but it’s not going to keep happening. I’m going to store it all up for myself. I’m not going to think, how can I bless other people?

I’m going to think, how can I hoard? And this is the way of the world. This is what you’ll hear in culture is just, there’s never enough and you need stuff to survive and to be happy in life. This is foolish. Some of us in this room are here, and by the grace of God, you can be set free. Second category that’s within the church, I believe, as well, is the Prosperity Gospel.

The Prosperity Gospel really picked up steam in the 80s and 90s. It’s still prevalent today. In fact, I think one research said 17 percent of American Christians subscribe to the Prosperity Gospel, which I believe is pretty toxic. Uh, so with the Prosperity Gospel, you’re depending on the abundance of stuff.

So at a prosperity gospel church, you talk about money a lot, but it’s always about we need to get more, more, more, more. And it’s this whole idea that if I give, God will always give me tenfold guaranteed. Live life enough to know that’s not always true. Sometimes it is. It’s wonderful, but sometimes it’s not.

This is a lot like the rich young ruler, right? I will say I love God and do all the things as long as you keep giving me stuff. But if you tell me to give to the poor, you want me to depend on you and not stuff. I’m out. So I’m going to find a church that only talks about come and you’ll make even more money.

Now let me be clear. I’m not against any of us making more money if we’re able to not be attached to greed, but it gets really hard, right?  Let’s go to Wikipedia because Wikipedia has all the answers, right? All right. So this is actually a really helpful definition.

First time I’ll ever and last reference Wikipedia in a sermon. Here is this definition of prosperity gospel, and I think it’s   📍 helpful. Prosperity theology. Sometimes referred to as the prosperity gospel, the health and wealth gospel, the gospel of success or seed faith, is a religious belief among some Protestant Christians that, and here’s the key line, the financial blessing and physical well being are always the will of God for them.

 Do you see how dangerous that can be? For people in certain stages that certainly, that don’t have certain amount of wealth or the people in this room who are suffering from chronic illness and now saying if you just had faith, you would be doing better. This is really bad theology. Let’s look at this next slide.  📍

And that faith, positive speech, and donations to religious causes will increase one’s material wealth. Material and especially financial success is seen as a sign of divine favor.  Now, is some of that kind of true? You kind of see that in the Old Testament. And anytime I run across a 5, 000 check, I give all the glory to God and say, thank you.

That is favor. But also, do you see how this can be so tricky? And it actually, this kind of gospel, isn’t a gospel that says, depend on God. It’s, Hey, we have this gospel. And if you pray the right prayers, you can keep depending on stuff. So this is a very bad theology, much like the rich young ruler. Let’s look at the third view of money.

It’s the poverty gospel. This is very common in churches as well. It’s depending on God. You really do love and trust him. You pray, you read your Bible every day, but you have a scarcity mentality like the older brother. How dare you ask for a feast? You have never prayed. You pray for blessings for other people, but you don’t pray for yourself.

Anybody else, right? Like, yeah, they should get something, but not me. I know for me right like this is a struggle. We just have this misunderstanding. Oh, we’re just such sinful people We’re so terrible. We should just be grateful. We’re saved and true that is the most blessed gift, but the older brother missed out because He had not because he asked not This poverty gospel is very prevalent, especially in churches that really try to study their bible, but for some reason they really miss this Uh, they they really have a scarcity mentality.

What i’m hoping all of us have is this last way is the way of jesus You The way of Jesus is described as depending on God with an abundance mentality. This leaves room. God might bless you incredibly with material wealth, or he might not. Like Paul, he says, I’ve learned how to be content with a lot and with a little.

Philippians 4, right? But in Christ, I can do all things. Right? Who gives me strength. This is the widow. This is the way of Jesus. It’s depending on God. God’s going to take care of me. If he tells me to sell my stuff or if I never get stuff, that’s okay. God is good. And I have an abundance mentality. So I’m going to pray big prayers.

I’m going to ask for big blessings. I want to bless other people around me. Because I have an abundance mentality. And I know that we serve a father who gives good gifts to his children. And if he says no, I trust him. That he, I didn’t need that material possession. Do you guys see kind of the, the mixture here?

This is really important for us to understand how, by the way, how does Jesus respond to each of these quadrants? First of all, to the way of the world, God says, literally, you fool, you’re going to die today. What do you do with all that stuff? Okay. How does God respond to the prosperity gospel? What does he say in Luke 18?

You missed it. Oh, how hard it is for the rich to inherit the kingdom of God. You were almost there. But you let stuff get in the way. Here, in the poverty gospel, what does the father say to the son? You have not because you ask not. Ask for the feast. Maybe I’ll give it to you. And then what does he say to the widow in Luke 21?

You have great faith. Although you gave two dollars, you gave way more than these rich and wealthy people because you trusted me. This is how God responds to us and my invitation, I hope, is that we begin to lean more and more into the way of Jesus, but I want to acknowledge this always takes time. So I want you to ask yourself in group, but also right now, of these four archetypes, which one are you?

I know for me, because of my family narratives and ministry failures, and stuff. I usually fall into the poverty gospel. I tend to think, uh, how dare I ever ask God for extra gifts. And to be honest with you, if somebody really succeeds in life materialistically, my first thought is they’re bad people. And then I have to go, no, that’s not always true.

That’s not, that’s not the case, but that’s kind of my bent. And so I’ve had to work on that, right? Like that’s where I’m at. Like when God gives me a gift, I often feel really guilty. Should I have even, should I receive this gift? Is this okay to bless my family? One quick example, it was August of 2020.

What a year that was, right? But this was the time when flights were pretty cheap. Everything was cheap because nobody was traveling. And so we just had, I actually, we almost thought I was going to have a heart attack from various health issues. And so, we were going through a lot. And I just said to my wife, we, and I know judgment’s coming, I’ll take it.

I said, we need to go to Disney World. And so, we went online. Disney World. We weren’t in the best financial position to be fully honest, but I really felt compelled we should do this and the whole step of the way I thought I feel like this is dumb. I feel like this isn’t right, but we did it. We got cheap things.

We were able to have people give us favors, all of that, but it still cost us a good chunk of money. We went and when I tell you it was one of the best trips ever. It was just, it was August in Florida, so it was hot, but we don’t even remember that. It was just glorious, great time. with family. And I remember on the way home, I was saying, thank you, God, like this was such a blessing, but I still had this tinge of guilt because I tend to believe in the poverty gospel.

And so we got home and had to check the mail after being gone for a whole week. And it was timestamped when that mail came in was the day that we took off. And it was a letter from a lady who used to attend our church. And she said, Trey, I’ve been thinking about you for some reason. She moved to the Northwest.

And I just wanted to give you this blessing. And when I tell you, that check was to the penny. The exact amount we spent on that whole trip. So we got a trip, and our finances were not affected at all. Now, this doesn’t happen every week. In fact, it’s only happened once. But it helped me understand, like, oh, I think it’s okay.

So it’s okay to ask for things and sometimes it’s okay to like go on vacation with family and of course there’s a way to do too much and you need to be wise about your spending. But it really began to open my understanding of reality and how God wants to be generous to us. And that’s what I want us to wrestle with.

Here’s the good and possibly bad news. Your perception of reality is running and often ruining your practice of generosity. If you cannot fathom that God is good and you can depend on him, you will not give. If you cannot understand that there’s an abundance mentality, there’s, it’s not a zero sum game, there’s more than enough to go around.

If you don’t believe that, if that’s not your reality, you will not give. And so, as faithful followers of Jesus, who I believe is so patient with us, let’s work on that together. And that’s what’s up on the docket this week at formedbyjesus. com slash generosity. Go to week two. Here’s the two next steps I hope you engage with this week.

First, you’re going to reflect on the stories you’ve believed about money. We actually have a really good questionnaire that Pastor Caleb put together, and I want us to be able to under, like, honestly say, which of those four quadrants do we feel pulled towards, just naturally? Do you depend on, do you depend on God or on stuff?

Do you have an abundance mentality or a scarcity mentality? And I just believe, even just admitting that, And saying those fears out loud to a community of people who love you really gives you the chance to step into freedom. So that’s the first step. Please be honest with that. It’s in your booklets.

Make sure you grab one of these on your way out if you don’t have one yet. The second thing and the last thing we’re asking you to do this week, which notice by the way, the takeaway has not yet been give. We’re trying to work on the heart and the stories that we believe it’s the practices to practice the act of trusting in the God of abundance by meditating on Psalm 23.

If you were here last year, we talked about Haggah in the practice of Scripture. It’s this idea, we don’t just read the Bible, we chew it over with unhurried delight. And that’s what I want to encourage you to do this week. It’s actually really helpful, uh, in this booklet right here, we actually copied all of Dallas Willard’s work, because what’s a Trey sermon without Dallas Willard?

And so, we, uh, actually put his commentary on each line of Psalm 23 to help you understand what each line means. And I just want to encourage you to wrestle with God and be honest. Think of that framework. Okay, God, as I read Psalm 23 every morning this week, am I depending on you or do I depend on stuff?

And then read. Okay, God, do I have a scarcity mentality or an abundance mentality? And then read and see what God will do. I love the first line, the Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. And if you don’t believe it, tell God you don’t and say it again and again and again and see how God begins to transform your heart.