What We Have Learned

Well good morning! I want to invite you to grab your message notes from inside your bulletins that look like this. These will help you follow along with the sermon for the next few minutes. My name is René, I'm another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church and I am super glad you are here. On this Thanksgiving weekend we have a lot to give thanks to God for. If this is your first time here, you chose a great weekend to check out TLC. I really think you're gonna enjoy this service. It'll give you kind of the DNA of our church.

If you're watching this online, we got a bunch of people watching us on Facebook live right now, including I just saw some people from Brazil who logged in. So welcome everybody watching from Brazil, welcome everybody watching over in venue next door. If you're watching online, you're also a huge part of what we're celebrating today because for eight weeks we have been doing this series called "Richer Life" and what this has been about, it's been about living generously and that doesn't just mean giving money, it means it means generous with your forgiveness, generous with your hospitality, generous in giving people the benefit of the doubt and giving people your love.

And I just want to say this, the eight weeks that we've been doing this series have been the most amazing eight weeks of my life as a pastor. It's been the most remarkable two month period that I have ever experienced as a pastor of a church and let me show you why. We have had small groups meeting weekly all over the county and beyond studying our Richer Life material. Here's just some of the pictures that some of the groups sent in to us, hundreds of people in these groups and we actually asked these groups to not just study about generosity but to actually do it.

We told them you're like a generosity lab, let's see what God puts on your hearts, let's see how you can be generous to other people and let's see if it's really true. Will you really lead a Richer Life? Well they put in a practice and what happened was an avalanche of generosity was unleashed on our community and we want to celebrate that this morning. I wish I could tell you about every single generosity project that happened but here are just like two minutes worth of highlights and I want to give these to you really fast because I want this to come over you like a tidal wave of love because I want you to sense the enormity of what has happened here, the enormity of what has happened just in the last eight weeks.

This is all just happened in eight weeks. Check this out. Many small groups did amazing serve the Bay projects all over the county, impossible to mention them all but some examples, some public schools like the La Fonda campus near Harbor High had old structures demolished, gutters installed, roofs cleaned, curbs painted, debris removed, windows cleaned, plus the Monterey Bay Therapeutic Horsemanship Center for the disabled was winterized, garden fences repaired by some more small groups.

For the homeless, other small groups collected over 900 pairs of socks and over 200 shoes. For project pajamas for homeless and disadvantaged kids we collected over 2300 PJs to reach a 10th anniversary grand total of over 10,000 pajamas collected plus we filled 188 boxes for Samaritan's Purse that's going to kids in developing countries for Christmas packed with clothes, with art supplies, with toys, plus our own school kids caught the vision and raised $2,280 for Second Harvest Food Bank all on their own plus $50,000 in immediate aid went to churches in Texas and Santa Rosa for hurricane and fire relief long term relief teams are being planned more on that in January.

Plus hundreds of you volunteered to be emergency shelter providers here through your homes in the event of a local emergency as part of a database for this now those are all just kind of the organized projects so many individuals did projects that they thought up all on their own because I asked you to many of you emailed me just a sample we heard about people doing yard work for single moms in their neighborhoods home repair for senior citizens one group cleaned and repaired an in-home preschool in their group's neighborhood another provided all the turkey and decorations for the Marina Veterans Center Thanksgiving dinner.

And I love this one seven-year-old Levi Emmert and his little sister sold hot apple cider in front of Corralitis Market last Saturday he told me he was the salesman and his little sister danced to attract the customers. Isn't that great? We all have our unique gifts. Well check this out these little kids it's just cute right? Well on their own their mom just kind of helped them carry stuff and took pictures right they sat there and raised two hundred and eighty dollars for Second Harvest Food Bank. Isn't that remarkable? I mean it just keeps coming and another group put together Christmas gifts for all of the residents at hearts and hands care home and another TLC or did free home repairs for widows and stroke victims in his neighborhood.

And my grandson is super cute now that is nothing to do with generosity at all but he is and I just get to talk about it I haven't for a while but we coupled all of these generosity projects and there were so many more with a big vision we called our 2020 vision pledge drive for all kinds of different projects we collected pledge cards last weekend would you like to know the total? Well I'll tell you in just a few minutes but first why did we do all this? I mean I want to just repeat everything I just described to you happened I mean from conception to execution in eight weeks so I think we've got to ask before we rush into the next thing which is the Christmas season right and that's going to be all encompassing we've got to stop and go wow what an amazing period in the life and history of this church what have we learned like what just happened here because I truly think this has the potential to completely change the way we live the rest of our lives.

And maybe some of you have already been living generously so many of you have but has the potential to give us kind of theological grounding for this and just enrich your lives. So on those notes let's look at just a few verses Luke 6 and these verses summarize every single thing we've been trying to say in this series about the richer life. Now if you haven't been a part of this series maybe this is your first Sunday here ever and you're going oh so this is like just a review no listen these few verses we're gonna look at today if you never hear anything else from the lips of Jesus if you never understand any other part of the Bible if you understand the verses that we're going to look at today you will understand basically everything you need to know about what Jesus said his followers should be like.

So this is very very important three major concepts that build on each other first Jesus says the reward of generosity is a richer life and that's why we call the series richer life you get a richer life when you're generous it's just a fact. Let's take a look at Luke 6:38 now this is a great verse and we're gonna read this out loud together in just a minute this is one of the most familiar verses in the Bible especially that first sentence but this is one of the most misapplied misunderstood verses in the entire Bible too so let's read it out loud together and then we'll kind of explain it here we go very familiar words Jesus said give and it will be given to you a good measure pressed down shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap for with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Now one of the most common mistakes that people make looking at this verse is first assuming that Jesus is primarily talking about money give and it will be given to you that's how I've always heard this preached right preachers say if you have a need plant a seed you know just give and it'll be given back to you but actually what he's revealing here is a principle that applies to every single area of your life and in context it's actually not even talking about giving money at all although it applies to that and this becomes crystal clear if you just back up a verse and look at the larger context.

Take a look at the verse right before this verse 37 Jesus says and let's read this out loud too let me hear you do not judge and you will not be judged do not condemn and you will not be condemned forgive and you will be forgiven and it's right after this verse right after the very next verse is where Jesus says give and it will be given to you so in context verse 38 isn't about giving money at all is it it is about giving giving people the benefit of the doubt giving people forgiveness giving understanding he's saying whatever you do in terms of emotional generosity has a reciprocal reaction to you what you give comes back to you and this applies to every kind of giving as a principle.

Now of course this does not mean if you had trouble in your life you must have done something to deserve it right you had a fender bender it's karma you did something bad and now the universe is punishing you this does not mean that everything that happens to you is a consequence of what you do this does mean everything you do has consequences for you does that make sense? Everybody in life has trouble accidents happen disease happens innocent people suffer so this doesn't mean that everything that happens to you is a consequence of what you do it does mean that whatever you do has consequences for you for good or for bad in good measure pressed down shaken together running over poured into your lap.

Now you might look at that and go what is he getting at right with all of these verbs here Jesus is evoking imagery that everybody who heard him in the first century would have immediately understood and it would have been very emotional for people and this completely flies right over our heads so let's look at a little bit of background back in those days according to instructions in the Hebrew Scriptures what we call the Old Testament farmers in Israel were supposed to leave the corners of their fields unharvested for the poor they could go through with their oxen and harvest the grain but at the corners they had to make a wide turn and leave the grain unharvested so that the poor people could come in after the first harvest and get the grain that was left there in the corners and guess what they called this food they were providing for the poor guess what it was called the second harvest and that's where our local second harvest food bank gets its name from their name is over 3,000 years old isn't that pretty cool?

This was the second harvest for the poor but here's the thing the poor people would hear that some farmer was doing this right for them and they'd walk there with whatever containers they happen to have maybe miles and miles and miles from their home so follow me however much food they could get into their containers that day would be the amount of food that they would have available to take back to their families so they had life or death incentive didn't they to get their baskets and to get their clay pots as full as humanly possible so what did they do first they put in a good measure not a partial measure not a half measure they filled it all the way to the top then they would press down on the grain so they could get more in then they would top it off again then they would shake the basket to eliminate any air pockets then they pour in as much grain as they could until it overflowed and spilled off the sides just packed it in and this imagery of a grateful poor person who is getting this lavish gift of free grain is what he's evoking when he says a good measure pressed down shaking together running over because you can bet some of those farmers were like we have got to give the corners of our field of the poor man we are losing all of that grain and Jesus is saying no no it's not in that loss it's in that game because whatever you make available to them actually gets given back to you in good measure pressed down shaking together running over poured into your life.

So he's saying whatever you give is given back to you if you give judgment judgment from other people is what you will get in good measure pressed down shaken together running over poured into your lap that is sobering but the good news is if you give love then that is what you're going to get in good measure pressed down shaken together running over poured into your lap you are going to receive more than you gave.

You say what are you talking about? So many people have given me examples of this during this series just one example man named Chris he was in our Wednesday night Bible study that we taught up at Mount Herman and one week in this series you might remember we talked about showing generous hospitality do you remember that and we said just gave the example of one woman at a church in Austin Texas who realized she didn't really know her neighbors that well even though she was kind of an extrovert so she put a turquoise table boom right in her front yard by the sidewalk so that people could sit down at the table and chat with her and she was really excited about that opportunity.

Well Chris this man in our Bible study he describes himself as a crusty curmudgeonly introvert he says I like to cocoon so he said this was a major challenge to me and I thought he's right I literally don't know any of my neighbors you know like I don't have friends in my neighborhood so he said I guess I gotta I gotta do something here to be generous my with my hospitality so he goes I'm not ready for a table I don't know if I actually want my neighbors to stay and talk to me so what he did was he rolled a living room chair out to the end of his driveway he sent me a picture he just sat on the end of his driveway he said when neighbors would walk by and go what are you what are you doing sitting on a living room chair at the end of your drive he would just look at him and go I got this idea from my pastor.

Right? So but listen to this he says you know what I didn't really expect many people would stop and talk to me to me but they did and we had great conversations and develop great friendships and these are neighbors who have lived next to me for years and I have never met them he says imagine this he says this is a picture of me coming out of my cocoon and did you notice he finally at the end he put a dining room chair next to the living room chair only they're not facing each other just baby steps man we're just baby step in here but he gave a little bit right but he got back shaken together overflowing pressed down poured into his lap for sure but but this is precisely where a lot of people go wrong with this verse because they stop here and they make this their only motivation for giving when I give I get so that's why I'm gonna give and well-meaning pastors fall into this trap this is why you ought to give you're gonna get a lot more what a great deal but you think Jesus was thinking to himself when he said this I really hope my disciples get a vision for getting more stuff he didn't want us to get a vision for getting he wanted us to get a vision for giving.

There is reward for sure but that's not our primary motive so what is our primary motive our foundational reason for generosity that's point two in your notes and leave that blank for a second just see if you can get it watch this you get even more context look up here if you go back a little bit further and you go back to verse 32 where it says if you love those who love you what credit is that to you even sinners love those who love them and if you do good to those who are good to you what credit is that even sinners do that and he says if you do good or if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment what credit is that to you even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be repaid in full.

What's he talking about here in those days our modern concept of generosity where you are just giving to the poor who cannot afford anything that did not exist 2,000 years ago did you know that the Roman world used a term for generosity called Liberallitas in Latin to describe the way they gave to charity and what this word meant was giving to please the recipient in the hope that the recipient would return the favor one day the whole idea in that culture was you scratch my back all scratch yours right you find people who can do something for you so that they owe you and in fact the Roman Emperor Caesar would occasionally go to cities that were strategic for him to win their alliance and he had a bunch of coins printed with this term Liberallitas on them.

Here's just an example do you see where it says Liberallitas on this coin and many different Caesars did this and they would go through in their chariots and they would throw out handfuls of these coins to these cities but just even the word Liberallitas was a reminder this is not a no strings attached gift stamped on the coins was a reminder sure I'm gonna give to you but I'm gonna expect this city to have my back when I need you to this is how generosity was viewed in those days.

So of course what happened who got generosity the people who already had the most got even more the people with influence the people with power the people with connections they were the recipient of generosity because they were the ones who could do you a solid right and Jesus walks into this Roman Empire world and says my kingdom does not have that written on its coin my kingdom does not work that way in my kingdom you do for others who cannot do anything back to you and in fact look how far he took it in the next verse but he said love your who your enemies and do good to them the exact opposite of the Roman Empire idea and lend to them without expecting to get anything back he says then your reward will be great and you will be children of the most high because he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

And then let's read Luke 6:36 out loud together because here's the whole point he says what be merciful just as your father is merciful Jesus is saying the reason for generosity is to be like our father he's saying I want to completely change the generosity paradigm here you do for those who cannot return the favor because that's what your heavenly father does your heavenly father doesn't withhold sunshine from people just because they've been behaving badly right Jesus didn't die on the cross saying this is for all those who deserve it if we could deserve it he wouldn't have had to do that in the first place right.

So Jesus is saying I want you to give like your heavenly father does and this took hold of the imaginations of the first Christians and they began to spread a whole new idea not liberal it toss but what they called Cara toss from which we get our modern English word charity this is a whole new idea 2,000 years ago and it was giving to relieve physical or spiritual distress without expecting anything in return and this idea swept through the early church and historians say the reason that while they were under persecution for the first 300 years Christians just accumulated more and more devoted followers of Jesus Christ is not because they had power because they didn't have any power not because they had connections they didn't have any connections it was because of their generosity.

There are no strings attached generosity not just to each other but to people who persecuted them they were kind and they were generous in fact there's an ancient letter that survives from the very earliest days of Christianity the Roman Emperor Julian total anti-christian and as Caesar he was trying to revive the pagan religions and he writes a letter to the pagan priests all over the Empire and in this letter he complains about the Christians he says the kindness of Christians to strangers has done the most to advance their cause those impious Galileans support not only their poor but ours as well and he's furious about it because this is drawing more and more people to Christ.

And you know what this is what real Christian giving still looks like where you're giving to people who could never pay you back give you one quick example one of our small groups sent me this video they made of what they did is their small group project I think is a great example of this check this out as our small groups been going through the richer life series we decided as a group to go out and share some of the things that we've been learning mainly sharing with those that are less fortunate in our community.

So we set out on foot with the loads of love band to the railroad tracks on Coral Street and distributed food and water socks umbrellas and other clothing items but most importantly we shared the love of Jesus with people through prayer and listening. It's cold very cold yes it's a little uncomfortable but it's also you know it gives you it definitely gives you a flavor of things we don't see very often so often we walk by the homeless and we don't want to pay attention and you know you come you start talking to people and they have hopes they have dreams they have kids you know just like us and it's just really great to have put a human face to someone who is like us but just you know it's not as temporarily hopefully temporarily one of the ladies in our group literally gave shoes off.

Well thank you all in all we felt our night was successful as we all had a chance to pray and talk with people and really show them they are loved and valuable the clothes evening eating a meal together talking about what experiences we had that night what a great great great example great example I gotta tell you there were so many times that I heard about what groups were doing that I would literally weep I mean what an exciting church for a pastor to get to pastor right but Jesus is saying here God is a giver so be like God that's the reason oh and by the way when you do you'll get a great reward the reward is real but the reason we give foundationally is for the pure joy of imitating our father.

We give for the pure joy of imitating our father and then God like a gracious loving father rewards us and then number three you see the result of generosity Jesus talks about this a lot it's people drawn to God people are drawn to God a few verses later Jesus says look here's how it works each tree is recognized by its own fruit in that word recognized people who don't even really know anything about Jesus or religion or church Jesus is saying oh they'll recognize you for what you really are frankly a hypocrite or somebody who has made Jesus Lord and as a follower of Jesus would you agree with this sometimes though the people who are not like regular church attenders sometimes they have a way better idea of what it is that we church people are supposed to look like than we do right to them it's like oh they say their followers of Jesus then they're supposed to like look like Jesus and we get distracted by all kinds of drama don't we.

Jesus is saying they will recognize you because a good man brings good things out of the good stored in his heart and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil that are stored up in his heart so the question is what do other people recognize just flowing out of you because you just love God so much? This is one of our richer life small groups that I got to visit last Monday and it was so fun going around to different groups during these eight weeks this is just a fascinating group they they're all relatively actually recent believers and they shared their stories most of them relatively recent one of these let me just share part of one of these stories this is Maya and Maya was so completely opposed actually to Christianity that she thought she would never even walk into a Christian church one time in her in her life didn't want to know know anything from Christianity.

Okay but at one point in her life about four years ago she was going through a rough patch a divorce and then her father was dying and on the day she was supposed to go visit her dad up in the city her car breaks down broken radiator turns out she's got no money to fix it she needs to get up and see her dad she takes it into a local shop guy there named Larry gives her a nice loner car to drive up to see her dad while she's up there calls her up Maya would you mind keeping the loner for a few more days your car is gonna take a little bit longer to fix and she thinks oh no okay so she goes back a few days later to get her car Larry calls out his whole staff from his shop out as he presents the car to Maya and Maya looks and Larry runs over what they've done they've not only fixed the broken radiator they have washed the car they've detailed the car they fixed other little things that are wrong with the car and they have put four brand-new tires on the car he said I think your car is good to go now and Maya says but I can't afford this and she's almost getting mad at Larry and Larry says I just want to tell you that I am a follower of Jesus and Jesus would want me to do something like this for someone who can't afford it.

Well what can I do to pay back? No no no no strings attached this is a pure gift of grace because that's what we followers of Jesus do Maya is dumbfounded eventually discovers that Larry comes to church here at Twin Lakes Church and through a lot of plot twists she finds her faith in Jesus Christ here but the first chink of light that she saw in the darkness was not Larry explaining his theology it was Larry explaining his generosity and this is so important to understand what Jesus is saying here in these verses is this we have the potential to create our reputation in the minds of those who do not share our beliefs.

I want you to look at the sentence for a minute because this is so important this is one of our values as a church this is one of the reasons we go out into our community look for ways to help we just want to bless the whole community no strings attached not just Christians everybody why like Maya people who never go to church judge us initially not on our theology initially but on our generosity people who maybe for good reason have wounds from a past church experience and they have negative impressions of church people have negative impressions of supposed mega churches people who don't want anything to do with Christianity people in fact here in Santa Cruz many think we're actually dangerous we're what's wrong they will change their opinion of us not on our theology but on our generosity.

Generosity is powerful generosity breaks down walls generosity forges relationships and this is why I would love for us to be known for being a generous church I'd love for people to look at us and say well I'm not one of them but I sure am glad they're here you know I'm not one of them and I don't know if I ever really want to be one of them but I sure would like to hire one of them you know I don't know if I ever want to be one of them but I sure would like my son or my daughter to marry one of their sons or daughters because they're the most generous most loving most gracious people I have ever met in my life and if you are here today or you are watching online or over in venue and that has not been your experience with Christians that is on us that is not your fault that is on us Christians still clumsily trying to figure out how Jesus really told us to live and this is so important because even more importantly we have to as a church own this next statement through our generosity we have the potential to introduce people to grace because carotas charity that's the definition of no strings attached generosity right the Bible says God so loved the world he what he gave Matt Chandler has a great quote he says generosity is grace made visible and when we give with a no strings attached generosity we're giving people maybe their first taste maybe their first sensation of unconditional love of grace.

Now let me just say this as we wrap this series up and if you don't get this final statement you'll misunderstand everything we've been saying in this richer life series we do not give because it works now it does work Jesus promised it we get rewards people are drawn to God they give glory to God we don't get because it works we give because God gave first and this is the core of our belief as Christians whether you're Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox or something else that's the core God gave unconditionally gave God is a God of grace he gave his life we didn't deserve it he gave us his son to save us we didn't deserve it that's the core of our faith we give because God gave to us first.

Now the reason this is important look up here for a second some of you have been Christians maybe a long time or tried it a long time ago and you kind of feel like it hasn't worked very well maybe you messed up maybe you have addictions maybe you've wandered maybe you've gone astray and this is important because God doesn't give because it works he gives because he's a giving God because he loves you and God doesn't retract his offer of grace to you just because it looks like it hasn't worked so far he keeps offering it no strings attached and that means no matter what you have done no matter what's water under the bridge in your life he could not love you more than he loves you right now and he never attracts his offer to you and the reality as the reality of his no strings attached love sinks into our hearts and captures our imaginations we just start to think how can I just shine with the grace that I have experienced to the whole world no strings attached and that is what changes you and that is what changes our planet amen that's what we are all about here no strings attached generosity.

Now I will fulfill my promise would you like to know the results of 2020 vision phase 2 right now? Okay first a few words let me just say this if you were not able to make a pledge no guilt okay maybe you don't have the funds times are tough no guilt just rejoice that God enabled some people to do this here's the big picture the total pledge amount we received so far is about six point eight million dollars in pledges so far and I know that number will go up because every single day since last weekend we keep receiving more pledges.

So picture what this amount means given many people in increments over the next four years this means enough to help remodel a church near Naples in a crime-ridden drug-infested neighborhood that's a partner church of ours this means enough to refurbish camp hammer with needed refurbishments and this means enough for Second Harvest Food Bank in fact here's what this means I would like to ask the CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank an amazing guy Willie Elliot McCray to join me on stage right now for this presentation would you just put your hands together and welcome Willie as he comes on up good morning Willie good to have you here thank you for having me.

All right are you ready for this? I don't know well we raised an awful lot this is from our 2020 pledges and from additional donations like little Levi Emmert's cider stand to provide for a grand total of two hundred and eighty six thousand four hundred and fifty two dollars and ninety eight cents. Now now wait hold your applause for just a second I want you to give you two more numbers that translates to one million four hundred and thirty two thousand two hundred sixty four pounds of food or one million one hundred and forty five thousand eight hundred and eleven meals now you can give God glory because this is amazing.

I just loved your talk about generosity this community knows that you are a generous church and this food provides hope and help for so many that are just struggling that have nowhere else to turn it just really means all the difference for thousands of kids and seniors and thank you thank you really so much and you know what I love you so much you are one of my favorite people in this county because of what you do with you have devoted your whole life to this cause of feeding people and we want to just thank you as a church let's thank that's a good man right there good fruit in his life.

Now the centerpiece of course of the whole 2020 vision project was the proposed college ministry center with a coffee house and so far after all those gifts to others remember we always said that our priority is to give those gifts to others no matter how much we receive that's our priority is to give the first fruits so we now have as I speak about three point six million for that center now that numbers lower than we had hoped but remember we asked God to direct us during this pledge drive that was my frequent prayer you know the Bible says in Proverbs that we plan but the Lord actually directs our steps and I really do believe that.

So we took this number mark and I talked to experts this week our contractor other building experts and they told us yes this is definitely enough to build a building for that purpose out there we will just need to make modifications to our original design but you know what I look at this I believe God is directing pretty specifically God is saying yes build and in fact here's your budget that's pretty clear direction won't be the exact building we were planning but we are going to have a great front porch ministry even if it means getting Chris to roll out his chair from his garage it's gonna be beautiful and it is going to be great more details to come I'm very excited about how God is going to provide within this envelope.

Now listen from the bottom of my heart I want to thank you all so much for your pledges as I said this is one exciting church to pastor but mostly I feel the need to give God glory and to give Him thanks don't you? Well let's pray together would you stand with me at a word of prayer and I'm gonna ask the band to come out and we're just gonna close this service by giving praise back to God for this.

Let's pray our gracious giving Lord our Heavenly Father thank you so much for the grace you lavish upon us our very breath is a gift our friends are a gift this congregation where we get to live our salvation it's just a pure gift from you and in fact I pray that if anybody here is not sure that they've simply just received that free gift of salvation from you that in this moment they would even pray something like God I'm not even sure what it means but I want to say yes to you and now help us grow into the same kind of lavishly generous nature that you have help us to be continue to be giving with our time with our love with our friendship our forgiveness our kindness our resources help us to be people of grace it all comes down to grace and right now we praise you for what you've done in and through this church through this richer life series we dedicate the funds pledged through this project to your glory enable us to fulfill our pledges according to your will with joy with abundance and we pray this in the name of our matchless Savior Jesus Christ Amen.