Abound, Part 4: The Stories We Tell // Luke Humbrecht

Hi, welcome to the Vine Life Church podcast.

We're in Boulder, Colorado, and we're following Jesus by staying limited in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission so that hearts are awakened with his awe-inspiring love.

And if we can help you in any way, reach out to us at VineLife.com.

For now, here's a short sermon from last week in my life.

Again, thanks for joining us.

Let's invite people and let's have fun with cute kids on Easter.

Alright, Luke's gonna come up and finish up our sermon series that we've been in about.

So it should be good.

Alright, thank you, Jeanette.

Good morning, friends.

Again.

And if we haven't met yet, I'm so glad to have you with us this morning.

We're gonna open up the scriptures together.

If you have your Bibles, you can open up to Exodus chapter 13.

Exodus 13 · chapter mention

If you don't have your Bibles, it's okay.

We'll have it on the screen as normal.

And uh are you guys loving the spring in the air?

A little sunshine.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, God.

I'll give you a second to get there if you need to get there.

Exodus 13.

Um We're gonna start in verse 11.

When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb, all the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's.

Every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb.

Or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck.

Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.

And when the time to come, uh and when in time to come your son asks you, What does this mean?

You shall say to him, By his strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery.

For when Pharaoh suddenly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals.

Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first opened the wombs, but all the firstborn of my sons I shall redeem.

It shall be as a mark on your hand, or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.

Question this morning.

What story is your life telling to the world?

What story is your life telling to the world?

So one of my mentors, Ray Hughes, I spent some time with him in Mussel Shoals, Alabama, this last year when I was on sabbatical.

And he's uh he he's an expert on some of the revival um uh circuit writers and some of the the aged old American revivalists, and one in particular, Sam Jones, in the late 1800s.

Sam Jones is a circuit writer preacher, he preached to about three million Americans.

He was the best known evangelist in the South during that time.

I think we have a story of Sam.

Um and he aimed, he aimed his preaching at men because they were the hardest to reach, and he had a hard word for them, almost mean, right?

Stuff you couldn't get away with preaching today without getting canceled in a heartbeat.

Um one day he was on a circuit, um, and and he they would just like ride their horses around and travel to different churches and areas and have revival meetings.

And uh he was on a circuit and and uh a wealthy man in town was very ill and asked Sam Jones to come and uh and pray for him.

And uh Sam apparently knew this guy, and so Sam came to him and said and sat with him, and then he finally said to this man, Listen, I don't see any good reason for the Lord to heal you.

If you can tell me any reason that you should live, I'll pray for you.

So, as far as I know, you've never done anything for the Lord that I should stand upon in prayer.

You've lived your whole life for you and you alone.

No one else has benefited from your existence.

You've given nothing to the widows and orphans in the city while they're in desperate need.

You've given nothing to the work of missions, nothing to the church, and even my horses are hungry while your barn is full of more food than you know what to do with.

So there's no use in asking my God to restore you.

I can ask him to forgive you and save you and take you to heaven, but there's no reason I should ask him to preserve your life.

And so this man, so this wealthy man replied, Well, maybe you're right.

But what if I make a promise?

What if I change all that?

What if I take care of the needs of those around me in the city?

What if the needs of the church are met?

So Sam knelt in that moment before this man, and he prayed.

He said, God, this man can deceive me, but he can't deceive you.

And if his heart is sincere, would you forgive him?

Would you heal him and would you restore him?

And as the story goes, it didn't take that, the man started to recover over the coming days, and he became well.

Um, and then after that, what they started to notice in the city, wagons of provisions started to show up in the city center and just started to show up into homes all across the city and uh and provisions to those in need.

And as it as it goes, this man's turning in this moment actually completely reformed the welfare of the city and the way that widows and orphans were cared for for all for the years to come after this moment.

So it's kind of a funny story into our modern enlightened years.

Uh it's slightly offensive to think that an evangelist would withhold prayer from a man.

And uh truth be told, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this tactic.

Um, but then again, uh the it once you've preached to three million Americans, maybe you have a little bit more of liberty to uh, you know, to try some unorthodox ministry methods.

But the reason I share this story is because this story provokes this deeper question.

Again, when it comes to the life you've begiven, what story is your life telling to the world?

Does the way you live indicate that you found something greater to live for?

And these are good questions, and they're questions we have to revisit time and time again.

And so if you're newer with us the last several weeks, we've been in this little conversation, this teaching series on this theme called abound.

And we've been talking about unlocking kingdom generosity and biblical principles about what a life looks like that lives with an overflow.

And it and some of this language comes out of Paul's encouragement to the Corinthians, because when Paul was writing to the Corinthians and he was stirring them up in faith, he was inviting them into a picture beyond where they were at.

He said to them, God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Everybody say every good work.

And that's the really the that's that's the the punchline here is the abounding life in God.

It comes with the assumption that you were made, that you were put here, you were invited into the store, you were blessed with breath in your lungs and strength in your body and a mind that can think.

You're given those things because God has has hardwired in you a desire and a purpose.

And like was just prayed a little bit ago, um, that you were uh uh that you were God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

And that's the calling that all of us have been given.

And so, yes, the the the principle here that we've been talking about is is is that God actually desires for his life to move through us, to not just stop at us, but to move through us, because everything that God can pass through us, he will ultimately give to us.

And and that is the calling that we've been given to be living lives that have about that that abound.

And I've loved even over the last few weeks, some of the stories that I've heard from many of you that have come.

And even this morning, somebody shared a story of they lost their job several months ago and they haven't had a steady income, uh, but they they kept being generous anyways.

They kept giving, they kept giving both to the church and beyond.

And um, and the report this morning was uh even on the act of faith of continuing to give as if they hadn't lost a job.

They just this last week received the check for about a third of their annual income.

That was completely unexpected.

Um, and it doesn't always happen like that.

It doesn't always happen in A plus B equals C.

It's not a math equation like that.

But as we've talked about the last couple weeks, anytime a seed is planted, fruit will come of that one way or another.

And many of you have even shared stories of walking in faith over fear, breaking the spirit of mammon, breaking the spirit of poverty, choosing to overflow in a world that says you need to hunker down because the global economy is falling apart.

God says, No, I own the economy, the world is mine, and I will take care of all your needs.

You be faithful to do whatever I tell you to do, and I will take care of you.

And we're so what we're doing is we're we're practicing, we're getting reps and we're going to the gym of kingdom life.

And part of generosity is choosing to work that muscle so our body knows when the moment comes that we know how to move and flow with the kingdom life.

So back to the text that we read a little bit ago in Exodus, we read together this commandment that was given towards the people of God and the children of Israel.

And this was given just after, freshly after the tenth plague, which was not pretty.

And what happened was God was liberating his people from the grip of Pharaoh, from the grip of Egypt.

For 400 years they had been in slavery, they had forgotten to even know what it was like to dream, they'd forgotten to know what it was like to walk in freedom.

And and God's commandment to them is listen, as you go into the land, this promised land, I want you to continue to offer me the first, the first of everything.

In this passage, it talks about the firstborn redeeming, the firstborn, anything that comes out of the womb.

But we could also include in that the first fruits.

It was a principle that that sustained the life of the people of God, that they would give God their first.

And in this passage, uh, God's commandment to them says, listen, when you, as you're giving your first, when your child eventually comes and asks you, What the heck are you doing?

You you won't just say, I'm doing this because I'm trying to be a good Jew.

You would say, Here, let me tell you a story of God liberating us, of what God did for us that we could not do for ourselves.

See, God didn't want them to only just do the right thing, He wanted them to remember their own story.

How many of you know that generosity needs to be rooted in the story, the miraculous story of God's work in our life, it's if it's going to move out from us in power.

So you may have noticed a scripture here that I didn't plan this, but we've heard it twice, both in the child dedications we read from Deuteronomy, and it talks about the things that I commanded you today.

That I want you to talk to them about your kids, and when you walk on the way, and when you uh when you go to bed at night, when you wake up in the morning, I want you to remind yourselves of these things.

And it ends with this passage and bind it on the frontlets between the frontlets of your eyes and and inscribe it on your hands, right?

And we read it the same, the exact same thing in the passage in Exodus, and it's only only uh this the second out of only three places that this actually uh this is recorded in the scriptures, that it shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for this by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.

And so what does that mean?

God is basically saying, listen, um, this is it's so important that you remember and rehearse the story of God in your life.

I want it to be as if you have something that you carry on your forehead wherever you go, and it sets you apart.

I want it to be almost like a mark, almost like a tattoo on your forearm.

Everywhere you go, you have the story written with you.

I do not want you to forget, and when you go into this new place and you go into this new land and you're trying to live in a certain kind of way, I don't want this to be separated from the story of my goodness at work in your life.

So he says, bind it as a front lip between your eyes.

And really, uh, arguably, scholars said that was more metaphor.

He wasn't talking literally, bind it as a front lip between your eyes.

But after a period of time, uh it's recorded that the Jews, when they came back from Babylon, they said, No, we're gonna take this seriously.

So they actually created this headwear that you would actually wear on your forehead out of calf skin, and they would put in this little pouch of scriptures all these little these commandments from these three scriptures I just told you.

They'd put it in the pouch and they'd actually wear it on their forehead.

I think we have a picture of this.

It's called the Teflon.

Do you have this, Blaze?

Yeah.

And so it almost looks like a little headlamp on his forehead.

And you see the the leather wrapped around his forearm, and and and many of you still do this today.

They have this little box or a pouch where these scriptures are there.

And it's almost like this over-the-top reminder of everywhere you go.

Just imagine walking around with a box on your forehead with all the promises and stories of God.

It's that he's that serious about it.

Bind it between your eyes so that when your child, when your son asks you, why are you doing this again?

You have a response.

You have something to respond to, you have a story to tell.

And that's a question that I ask often when I think about my own kids.

And I think it's a question a lot of us need to ask, not just with our children, but those in our life.

What story are you telling?

What story are my kids learning through the way I spend my time and my energy and my passion and my possessions and yes, my money?

What story is that connected with?

Because the thing in the kingdom life, for those who have been liberated from slavery, there should be something counterintuitive about the way we live.

In the kingdom life, there should be something that only makes sense through the context of a great story and a great miracle that's happened in our life?

Can I ask you a few questions this morning?

Who here has ever been rescued from deep darkness?

Who here has ever been miraculously provided for?

Who here has been healed in either body, soul, or spirit?

Who here has been comforted by the Holy Spirit in deep sadness?

Who here has experienced freedom and joy?

Who here has received peace that transcends understanding?

Right?

And if those things are true, if the answers to those things are true, it should change the way others experience our lives.

It should change the way, the lens through which we view all of our actions, everything we do, we live in light of what God has done.

We live in light of who God has been for us and will continue to be for us.

And I think about this because it how easy is it for us to get used to even a Christian life, even a certain kind of life, without remembering that it's all actually connected to the story.

Nothing we do in following Jesus is just because it's a good thing to do.

It's all connected to his story.

And so when our kids ask us, why do we gather with people every Sunday morning at 10 a.m.

for worship?

It's because when I was estranged from God, he knit me into his family that he loves dearly.

It's not just because it's good, church, good, good Bible-believing Christians go to church.

Sure, we can start there, but if it doesn't go deeper than that, we rob ourselves of an opportunity to root ourselves in a story.

When our kids ask, why do you sing so loud?

Why do you put our hands up?

Not just because it's a good idea, because Zephaniah 3.17 says, He rejoices over me with singing.

And so I'm just returning back to him the song that he sings over me.

Why do we have people around the dinner table and break meals with others?

Because he set a place for me at his table.

He made a way for me at his table.

Why do we give, why do we just give them all that money?

Because God has provided all of our needs and he has no plans of stopping that I know of.

Why did we just stop and talk to this man on the streets that does not have a home?

Because, not because it's just a good thing to do, but because God has dignified me with his full attention.

And now I can do the same with others.

I can dignify every person that I meet with full attention because they are created in the image of God.

Why are we taking time to pray for that person in the dentist's office?

Because God stops for me when I'm in need.

Because God was broken and beaten, and he went to the cross and he absorbed all of my pain, all of my sin and disease and wrongdoing into himself.

And so when I take a moment to pray for the sick or to pray for somebody in an unlikely place, it's only because he's done that for me.

See, the thing is, when we lose sight of our story, generosity becomes a duty, not an overflow.

That's the danger.

That's a danger for everything that we do as followers of Christ.

When we lose sight of the story as frontlets between our eyes, we start to live in a checklist world doing things only because it seems like this is what good people do.

When we lose sight of our story, generosity becomes a favor, not a free gift.

And I'm convinced that there's many of us who've been sapped of joy because we've forgotten our own story.

It's very easy to do to forget our own story.

What got us here in the first place?

And it's for many of us, it's not because we don't have a good story, it's just we've lost the plot, we've lost interest, we've been caught up in the concerns of this world and we've settled for.

This is just what Christians do.

But I'm just saying this morning, the reason why we share these scriptures and open this up, because the gift of generosity is it roots us into a larger story outside of ourselves and it gives us purpose to everything that we do.

That it's not just because it's a good thing to do, it's because we have been a recipient of a great gift.

That's why I I really it gets tiring sometimes talking about um the the nuts and bolts of tithing and you know what kind of per what percentage are we talking about?

Is it 10% or where does it go?

Or do we tithe on our gross or net?

Or is it law or is it grace?

And but what about my tax refund?

Do I tithe on that too?

What about that check my grandma gave me?

Do I tithe on that too?

And what happens is we can get really tripped up over you know all of the little things that that come uh when we're trying to sort out these types of issues.

And listen, do I believe in giving to the Lord and honoring the Lord at the first?

Absolutely.

Do I believe in giving to the local church?

Absolutely, because I've seen how God has used the church.

I see in the scriptures that God uses the church as his primary plan to extend blessing into the world.

Do I believe that God requires us to do anything?

No, I actually don't.

Do I believe that that we're bound by law?

Not grace?

No, I don't.

I believe we're free from the law.

I believe that we're free from the law.

I believe that we're in a time of grace.

Absolutely.

Um and honestly, uh, I think what that means is that God is so good that he would never limit us to just 10%, giving only 10% of what we have.

He would not, he's too good to limit us to that.

Because at the end of the day, all of it is his.

All of it.

It's not just the 10%, it's all of life gets to overflow into God's purposes, and he gets to decide where he wants us to give.

My life is not my own because I've been liberated from slavery.

I've been liberated from shackles, the shackles of sin.

How many of you know that Jesus didn't come just to make bad people good?

He came to make dead people alive.

And some of us have forgotten the reality of our story that we were not called to be just a self improved version of ourselves through the help of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit.

Has it not been given to you to become 2% better this year than you were last year?

He's been given to you for the sake of calling you out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of marvelous light.

We were lost in our sin before Christ.

And it's because of his rich mercy.

This is what Paul says.

In Ephesians 2, he says, and you were dead in your trespasses.

Everybody say, dead.

Woo! We were dead.

In the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

Sin is not just having an off day.

I didn't just, I'm just not, it's not just having, that was just a bad day.

It's not, it doesn't just slightly taint us or color us.

Sin makes us dead.

You were dead in your trespasses and the sin in once you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

And were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

But God.

Everybody say, but God.

Being rich in mercy.

This is such a key phrase.

Rich in mercy.

God was rich in mercy.

Not just enough mercy.

Not here's enough mercy to get you by today to cover that sin.

He was rich in mercy.

Because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved.

And raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches.

There's that word again.

The immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

If you needed to hear the gospel today, that's it right there.

By grace you have been saved through faith.

It's not because of your good work.

This is not because of your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So if you needed a little philemignon today, if you needed just to hear it straight, we were dead in our trespasses.

But as the rich, the God who is rich in mercy, is because of the God in rich in mercy gave himself to us.

And there's nothing that we can do, not even an act of generosity.

We can't buy ourselves into the kingdom of God.

We can't outperform ourselves into the kingdom of God.

We can't be compassionate enough.

We can't do enough good for the kingdom of God.

We are saved by grace through faith because of the overflowing generosity of God.

We have been liberated from darkness, from slavery.

And now our lives abound because, not because we have been liberated into a life of trying to do good things for God.

We are trying to just keep up with the and match even a fraction of the generosity that He's shown us in His love and His mercy.

Is anybody with me here this morning on that?

So we have a story.

We have a story.

Every act of generosity tells a story.

Every act of kingdom living tells a story.

But when we are unaware of where we came from and the fact that every day and every breath is a beautiful gift from the giver, then we lose part in telling the story.

I'm telling you, when we lose the plot of the story, we are not far from being sapped of freedom and life.

But if you to this morning can just think on this morning, if you've tasted anything good in the Father, if you tasted any, if you experience any joy, any consolation, any comfort from his love, you have a story worth telling, and your life makes sense.

This whole series on generosity had no other hidden agenda, had no other, you know, sideways project.

There's not a big offering that we're going to be taking.

There's not a huge thing.

This is about us continuing to take a step into the life that God has called us in a world that says that there is not enough for you.

In a world that says you should be worried because everything is collapsing.

In a world that says you need to start, right now is a good time to start freaking out.

The banks are dropping like flies.

They're bailing each other out.

Who knows where that's going to go?

But guess what?

God is rich in mercy.

He is rich towards you.

He is rich towards me today.

He's rich enough that he gave his own son to die for us, to liberate us from the grip of fear, to liberate us from the grip of mammon, to liberate us from poverty, and to give us new eyes through which to see the world.

And if there's any encouragement today, if there's any encouragement this morning, it's this: do not forget your own story.

You are not a self-made person.

Some of you think you are.

I'm just telling you right now, you are borrowing your breath.

Your breath was a gift from your Maker.

You are not a self-made person.

You have been invited into a great story that's beyond yourself and outside of yourself.

And if you're willing to say yes to him, he has great things for you.

And he has a life, an abounding life ahead of you, but you have to say yes to him.

And I think some of you, that is the invitation this morning.

Say yes to Jesus.

Don't make a foolish decision.

Say yes to Jesus today.

Don't wait another day.

Do not lose sight of your testimony.

Do not lose sight of the power of God in your life.

Do not lose sight of where you come from.

And even listen to me.

I grew up in the church.

I didn't come from this, you know, wild story of partying and sex drugs and rumuck and roll, maybe a little bit of rummack and roll.

But it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter how good I was on the surface.

I was estranged from God.

I was estranged from the people that God loves.

And I needed him.

I needed the grace and mercy of God.

That is my story.

I have no other story than that.

And as I live, my greatest prayer is that my kids will see that story too.

And as we prayed for these three little boys, even today, my prayer is that they see that story in their parents' life, that we become the kind of people, the kind of community that live in such a way that needs an explanation because it doesn't make sense unless something miraculous has happened.

It doesn't make sense.

And maybe, just maybe God wants to remind you of some things you've forgotten.

So across the room, would you just close your eyes with me?

And for a moment, if you're grateful, if you're grateful for the gift of life, if you're grateful that you've been invited out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of God's beloved Son, if you're grateful that there's a seat at the table for you, if you're grateful that you're part of a family, just begin to thank the Lord.

Just begin to thank him across the room.

If you're grateful that you've been liberated from sin and your own wrongdoing and your own shame, if you're grateful that on the days that you weren't enough, that God was there to wrap his arms around you and say, I've got you.

Just thank him.

Thank him.

We thank you, Jesus.

If you're grateful for the the bruised and beaten body of Jesus, if you're grateful for the blood poured out for you.

Just say thank you, Jesus.

If you're grateful that in your darkest day and deepest sadness and your aloneness and isolation, that even there you're not separated from God.

Just say thank you.

And today, God, I pray for us as a people, learning to stay in step with your kingdom, learning to stay in step with you, Jesus, to not give into the way of the world that teaches us to live in the lens of fear and scarcity, but teaches us to see with wide open eyes.

God, as we learn, as we as we learn to step into this, God, I thank you today to begin to remind us of the stories of your goodness, that we can bind them like frontlets in between our eyes, that we could bind them to our arms and our hands.

I thank you, Lord Jesus, that we've received your power.

We've seen your power, and we will continue to see your power.

I just pray that even this year, as we move through this year, we'll continue to see the power of God at work among us.

And the miraculous saving work of God among us.

You've saved us once, you've saved us again and again and again, and eventually you will save us for all of time.

And we thank you, Lord God, that you are God, our salvation.

We thank you for your abounding love, God, that we cannot match.

And if you're here today and you just need to say yes to Jesus for the first time, or maybe the first time where it feels like it really matters, maybe the first time since you were a child or since a different season, you need to say yes to God and to the free gift of life.

I just, wherever you're at, just say yes to him.

Say yes to Jesus.

I say yes to you, God.

You don't have to pray a fancy prayer, you just say yes to Jesus.

I believe in you, I receive you, God.

And all of us, God, we say yes to you.

And I want to finish with this poem from Malcolm Geit.

Called As If.

He writes this, as if the giver of all gifts asked me to give, the fountain from which every good thing flows, the life who spends himself the all might live, the root whence every bud and blossom grows, calls me as if I knew no limitation, as if I focused all his hidden force, to be creative with his new creation, to find my flow in him, my living source, to live as if I had no fear of losing, to spend as if I had no need to earn, to turn my cheek as if it felt no bruising, to lend as if I needed no return, as if my debts and sins were all forgiven, as if I could body forth his heaven.

Could we stand together today?

How many of you are thankful for the gift of God and that we've been given life through the giver?

How many is thankful this morning?

Come on, lift it up to Jesus.

We thank you, God.

Listen, as we end, we're gonna end our time here this morning.

Some of you need some prayer.

Some of you are here this morning.

You need prayer.

There's things that are happening in your life.

Maybe it has nothing to do with what I even talked about, but you're here this morning and you need the giver of life to supply something to you that you cannot supply for yourself.

And that's okay.

We're all in need.

Every single one of us here is in need of God.

And if if you need prayer this morning, if you want to talk about a relationship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit, I'm gonna ask some of our leaders, elders, ministry team, whoever.

I I don't even care who you are.

Just come up front and we'll pray for you.

Just we'll just get some people on the left-hand side, the right hand side up here.

I do believe, I do believe that there's people here that just need a fresh touch from God.

And I want to invite you and give space for that here this morning.

And I want to bless us as we go.

We're going as sons and daughters loved by God, given into the kingdom of God.

So let me pray over us here this morning as we go.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May you make his face shine upon you.

May he be gracious to you and give you peace.

Amen.

Go in the name of Jesus.

We love you guys.

Come next week, all right?

You're gonna love it.