Fanatical Servants and Givers

Well, good morning, Church of the Grove.

My name is Jonah Faulkner.

I am the youth pastor for our Walnut Grove campus here at Church of the Grove.

I'm so thankful for this morning.

I'm thankful for this time of year.

It's Christmas time, right?

Officially Christmas time.

Thanksgiving's over.

I personally really don't like celebrate and think about Christmas until it's like December.

But we got decorations out, so we'll go ahead and say that it's Christmas time.

Man, I'm so excited for this morning.

I'm so excited to continue our series on Thanks and Giving as we continue to talk about the blessed life.

We have been talking about the blessed life, what it means to be blessed for the past couple weeks.

We have talked about to be blessed is to have God's favor spoken over us.

And ultimately here at Church of the Grove, we we want all of y'all to have a blessed life.

So as we talk about that, we're we're going through the series of thanks and giving.

So if this is your first time here at Church of the Grove, um, I'm gonna warn you, we're talking about giving this morning, but this is not what we talk about every single Sunday.

Um, it's always kind of an elephant in the room when we talk about giving.

Um, but man, we're we're here at Church of the Grove, we're excited to teach about giving.

Not because we're wanting something from you, but we're trying to provide an opportunity for you.

The Bible makes it very clear that as far as of Christ, we are called to be generous people.

We are called to live lives of generosity.

And when we when we live generously, then God promises us to bless us.

What we sow is what we're gonna reap.

So as we go through the series, we're really trying to provide an opportunity for you to live out the obedience that God calls us to live.

So in week one, we we learn that the blessed life begins with a generous heart.

We talked about the three different mindsets.

We talked about the bag mindset where so often we we never feel like we have enough.

We're constantly wanting more and more and more.

We're constantly wanting to put stuff in our bag.

We never feel like we have enough.

Then we talked about the basket mindset where we kind of start to realize that ultimately we have more than enough.

We right now we have more than enough than what we really need.

We can compare America to different countries across the world, and we understand that we have more than enough.

So when we start to understand that, we we might begin to be a little bit generous.

But then we talked about the barn mindset where we understand that in Christ Jesus we have infinitely more than enough.

And when we understand this, that is when we are gonna be radical givers, radical servants.

Last week, Russ talked about the blessed test.

He he gave the challenge.

Are we gonna love money and possessions, or are we gonna love and trust God?

He talked about the tithe, the discipline of tithing.

The whole idea that we are gonna give our first and our best, and then we're gonna trust God to bless the rest, right?

We're gonna be uh uh conscious and intentional about tithing because we trust God with everything we have.

The tithe teaches us to put God first, um, and and ultimately the tithe is what provides for the church to do the work of the kingdom of heaven in the local community, but also across the world.

So this week we're gonna wrap up our series of Thanksgiving, talking about what the fanatical servant and giver looks like.

We kind of ended on this um week one when we talked about the barn mindset, but but this morning we're gonna dive deeper into what it looks like to be a fanatical servant and giver.

Before we start talking about that and what it looks like to be to be just a radical, uh radically generous person, we gotta we gotta understand a truth that we really like to look over, right?

So we we we gotta understand that there, as as Christians, there is still a power and a work that is against us.

There, there's there's the the the devil is out there.

Satan is very real.

And what we know is that when we give our lives to Christ, that at that point, Satan's main goal is to bring us as far away from God as possible.

His main goal is to get as between us and God as much as he can.

He's trying to prevent the blessings of God in our life with everything he has.

So as we know, it's it's insanely difficult to be a generous person, right?

I think going back to um I graduated college in May, and y'all, man, y'all remember the college lifestyle.

You are broke in college, right?

I mean, we were so I I remember back in college, like we would be so broke that everything we did, we would vouch, like we would consider it and think about it in terms of how many cookout trays we could get with that money.

Like that's how broke we were.

It is just every single dollar mattered so much.

So to I and I heard so many messages throughout my four years of college about being a generous person, but then I looked at my bank account or looked how much cash I have in my wallet, and it was very difficult to be a generous person.

But ultimately, that's all that is is Satan trying to get between us and God and trying to prevent us from experiencing the blessings that God has planned for us when we are generous.

I think back, and one of the just the biggest attitudes that that kept me from being generous and kept me from the blessings of God throughout college was ultimately pride and selfishness.

These are temptations that Satan throws at us that keeps us from being a generous people.

Ultimately, pride comes in is when you look at all your possessions that you have and you think, man, I deserve this.

I worked hard for this.

Why would I give it away?

This is everything I have.

Why would I give this away when I worked so hard to get it?

And then I also saw a lot of selfishness in college when I saw the very little I had, I didn't want to give it up.

I I began to think to myself, I need this more than the homeless person that I walk by on the street.

I need that cookout tray.

I need this$5 so I can go get me a cookout tray later.

I was so selfish in my thinking, and that was a temptation and a lie from the devil that God was not going to provide if I was generous, that God would not bless me if I was generous to other people.

So before we start talking about what it means to be a radical giver, we have to understand that Satan is doing everything in his power to prevent you from being a generous person.

As a follower of Christ, he is doing everything he can to prevent you from being a generous person because he knows that when you're generous and when you trust God to bless you and to provide for you, he knows that you're going to experience God in ways that you've never experienced him before.

He knows you're going to experience satisfaction and a joy and a contentment in God that you have never experienced before.

So Satan is scheming against us, and we constantly have to fight and be on guard against that, that Satan is trying to do everything he can to prevent us from experiencing the blessings of God.

So there's two things we've got to remember.

One, we've got to remember that God has blessed us.

God has blessed us immensely.

And it may not look like the same as someone else's blessings.

You may not have the same stuff that someone else has, but God has blessed you in so many incredible ways.

So we've got to remember that God has blessed us, but we also have to remember why God blessed us.

Why has God blessed us so much?

He didn't bless you because you deserve it, or he didn't bless you so you can just keep on storing up stuff and stuff and stuff.

He blessed you for a purpose, and we are blessed to be a blessing.

We see this in 2 Corinthians 9, 11.

Paul says, You will be enriched in every way.

Why?

To be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

Genesis 12, 2 through 3 says, And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in all, and in you all the families of earth shall be blessed.

So in this we see that we are blessed to be a blessing.

We are blessed so that, for a purpose, we will be a blessing.

Why does God make us so rich?

Why does God bless us so immensely so that the blessing that He has given us will flow out of us into the lives of the people around us and across the world, across the nations, as we continue to work and give to the advancement of the gospel.

So our big idea this morning as we kind of move into the heart of this message is that blessings come from God and they come for a purpose.

Blessings come from God and they come for a purpose.

So for the remainder of this morning, we're gonna look at what it looks like to be a fanatical servant, fanatical giver, to be radically generous.

But before we, as we move into that, we're gonna talk about three different kinds of servants, is what we're gonna call them.

But this is kind of three attitudes about serving and giving in general.

So the first one we're gonna talk about is the spontaneous servant.

The spontaneous servant.

So this is this is the person that when they see a need, uh an immediate need in front of them, they're gonna meet it.

So is there, as uh, I gave the example when I was in college, as they're walking down the street, they see a homeless person on the side of the street.

This is the person that's just gonna give to that to that homeless person because there's a need in front of them, and they're gonna meet it.

Jesus gives us a good example of what this looks like in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, verse 30 through 35.

Luke 10:30–35

Says Jesus replied, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion.

He went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, then he set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

And the next day he took out two dinari and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I get back.

So the story gives us a great example of what a spontaneous servant or giver looks like.

When a need arises, you see it and you meet it.

A spontaneous servant, along with kind of the example that Jesus gives, might might give to a couple big things or big gifts throughout the year.

When a financial campaign comes up, they might give, or when Christmas time rolls around, they might give, or Easter rolls around, they might give, or shop with a hero rolls around, they might serve and and give their time and their efforts.

But the spontaneous servant is like it says, it's spontaneous.

When a need arises, they meet it.

And it's a great thing to be a spontaneous servant.

Jesus gives us this example, this parable of the Good Samaritan as an example to follow.

When we see people in need, we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus and meet that need.

However, I think when the majority of our giving comes through spontaneous giving, it's it's easy to forget about our calling to be generous.

One way is there there might be weeks or months when there's not really an opportunity or a need arises for us to meet.

So then we go weeks or months without giving, without being generous.

And we we kind of grow cold and hard-hearted towards generosity because it's been so long since an opportunity has arisen.

There's also, when it comes to this, an easy temptation to just kind of wait until next time.

That was always my excuse in college.

If I would see someone on the side of the street that there was an immediate need I can meet, I would either say, Well, I got to get to class, I'll do it next time, or I don't have any money right now, I'll help them out next time.

There's always gonna be a next time when it comes to needs that arise.

So the spontaneous servant, it's a w that they're aware and they have an ear and an eye open to what God may be calling them to, but ultimately they lack in intentionality in their giving.

They lack in planning and being intentional and strategic about their giving.

They don't really view giving as a act of obedience or really a required way of following Christ, they just view it as an option to be nice and compassionate every once in a while.

So this leads us into the next type of servant we're gonna talk about this morning.

This is the strategic person.

So it's kind of who Russ talked about last week.

It's a person that's gonna sit down and say, you know what?

We're gonna plan to be generous.

If the Bible calls me to be generous and to be to be one who gives abundantly, then I'm gonna plan to do that.

I'm gonna set out 10% or whatever it may be every month to give back because God has blessed me so much.

That's a strategic servant.

2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 7 says this.

Paul says this.

The point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he is decided in his heart, not reluctant, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

So what this verse tells us is that the strategic servant strategically plans how they're going to give.

It says right there in verse 7, each one must give as he is decided in his heart.

That's a call to be intentional, to think, to pray through how much you are going to give, how consistently you are going to give.

This could also come in the form of serving.

The strategic servant is gonna say, I'm gonna serve on the third Sunday of every month.

I'm not gonna serve just when an event like Shop with a Hero rolls around.

I'm gonna be intentional about serving as consistently as possible because that's what God calls me to do.

I'm gonna volunteer for local ministries in the area once a month because I want to plan to be generous not only with my money, but with my time and my talents as well.

The strategic servant asks questions like, how can I consistently be generous?

How can I serve consistently?

You gotta think, you gotta plan, you gotta give and serve strategically.

I think there's something that's important that we can learn from this idea of the strategic servant, and it's this generous people plan to be generous.

Generosity is not an accident, it's not a rare occasion, but generous people plan to be generous.

It's a consistent strategic practice.

However, just like the spontaneous servant, when you know there's a need arises, they're very good at meeting it.

But however, just like that, the strategic servant, it's got it's got some it's got some downfalls, it's got some some disadvantages to it when this is your sole mindset when it comes to giving.

The strategic servants may not be as quick to meet a need as a spontaneous person might be.

When they see a need, what comes to their mind is, well, I gave my tithe for the month, so why do I need to help this homeless person?

I I I served at this local ministry this month, or I I hosted this ministry in my home this month.

Why do I need to give now?

I've already I've already done my time.

I gave my money for the month.

I'm I'm done.

The strategic servant kind of says, I'm gonna tithe this, but whatever's left over is mine.

Right?

I'm gonna give God his 10%, but the other 90% is mine and it's mine alone.

This is this is what I worked hard for.

Man, I was my parents did such a good job at raising me to be a person that's intentional about giving the the the first of whatever I get.

So growing up, anytime I would get money, they they would always kind of hold me accountable to making sure I gave that I tithed in some sort of fashion.

And as I grew older, that it's just become a part of my life.

So I'm I I'll say I'm very intentional about giving because that's the way I was raised, but I'm not very good at when a need arises, being compassionate and meeting that need and doing what God calls me to do.

Because I go back to, well, I already already gave my my tithe for this month.

Can I really afford to I have room to be a blessing to this person?

So as we we look at the spontaneous and the strategic servants, kind of two opposites, we see that the biblical idea of generosity, the heart of generosity, is found when you combine the two.

So that's when we come in and we're gonna look at what it looks like to be a sacrificial servant.

So the sacrificial servant, these are the fanatics, these are the radically generous people because they understand everything they have comes from God.

They don't have that mindset of, oh, this is mine.

This is mine, I gotta hang on to it.

I'll give my tithe, I'll give God what he deserves, but I'm holding on to everything else.

No, this the sacrificial servant understands that everything we have, whether it be our money, our possessions, our time, our talent, everything we have is God's.

And it's freely given to us by God.

Not so that we can hold on to it, not so that we can take more and more and more, but so that we would be a blessing to other people.

Because sacrificial servants understand everything they have comes from God and belongs to God, they're willing to give everything.

So right now I'm I'm just I'm gonna give someone an opportunity to be a sacrificial giver, a sacrificial servant.

Um I don't really know who yet.

Um, Michael, you want to come on come on uh on up here?

So, Michael, you can uh go ahead, you can come up here on the stage if you want to.

Michael, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to be a sacrificial servant, a fanatical giver.

Um, as you know, I'm I'm a full-time youth pastor, and I'm about to get married.

Um so financially, that is not a good matchup at all.

It is 75.

75.

So, Michael, listen, I'm gonna give you a chance to be a fanatical giver, fanatical servant.

Um, do you have anything that you could bless me and Reese with?

How about that?

That would be fantastic.

Michael, I hope everyone sees this and they see, wow, Michael is a fanatical servant.

I want to be just like Michael, and I hope everyone runs up here and just throws these onto the stage.

I'm just kidding, Michael, before everyone gets up and leaves because the the preacher just asked for money, um, we're not we're gonna tell everybody that I gave this to you before the message, right?

Right.

And what I say.

I'm asking you.

That's right.

That's right.

Uh exactly.

I'm giving this to you to hold on to until I ask you to do something with it.

So great, Michael, you can go ahead and you can go ahead and have a seat.

Um, yes, we set that up.

Um, so as cringy as that was, I want it to be an example of what it looks like.

So I came to Michael before the service, said, Michael, I'm I'm giving you this hundred dollars and I want you to hold on to it until I ask you to do something else with it.

Now, did y'all see how fast he gave me that hundred dollars?

I've never had someone give me$100 that willingly and that that quickly, even if I worked for it.

Um, so so why was he so willing to give that?

Why was he so willing to give me that hundred dollars just then?

It wasn't his.

He never viewed it as his own.

Why?

Because I gave it to him and I said, hang on to this until I tell you to do otherwise, until I ask you to do something with it.

So for the whatever it's been 40 minutes maybe since he's had that, he has never viewed this hundred dollars as his own.

He's understood that ultimately, just because I gave this to him to hold on to, it was never his.

It was it was still mine.

So he is willing to give it back because he knew it was mine in the first place.

Right?

So using that example, this is the idea behind the sacrificial servant.

We have to understand that everything we have, everything we have is not ours.

It is not ours.

I don't care if you have two million dollars in your bank account, it's not yours.

It's a blessing from God that He has blessed you with to be a blessing to other people.

So we should be sacrificial servants, we should be generous people because we got to understand it's not ours in the first place.

Everything we have is not ours in the first place.

We're simply holding on to it.

We're borrowing it, we're being good stewards of it until God tells us to do otherwise, until God calls us to do something with it.

Jesus, he gives such a beautiful example of what a sacrificial servant looks like in Mark 12, as he he watches and just looks on a widow give everything she had to live on.

This is Mark 12, verse 41 through 44.

Mark 12:41–44

It says, and he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box.

Many rich people put in large sums, and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.

And he called his disciples to him and he said to them, Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those.

Who are contributing to the offer box?

So they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.

You gotta read that story, and the first question that comes to our mind is why?

If she had one penny left, why does she give it?

What does she do from here?

How does she eat?

Where does she go to sleep?

How does she get from place to place?

How does she have clothes on her back?

If this is her last penny, if this is all she had to live on, why would she give it?

Why?

We so often get caught up in the amount when it comes to giving that we forget about the why and the heart behind it.

We read the story and we gotta ask, what's the purpose of it?

What's the purpose of giving and being willing to give everything that we have to live on?

The widow, she gave everything she had because she realized that everything she had was not hers in the first place.

She was willing to give everything she had because she knew that the God that gave her that one penny, she knew she could trust him to continue to provide for her as she goes throughout her day.

She gave that one penny because she understood that that was a blessing from God until he called her to do otherwise with it.

She never viewed that that last penny that she had as her own.

She understood she was simply a steward of that penny until God called her to do something otherwise.

Because she understood this, because she understood the meaning and the heart behind giving, she was willing to give everything.

I don't know why, but I almost picture her like joyfully going to the offering box and giving this last penny.

I don't picture it just like, you know, if if if it was significant enough for Jesus to record it and then call his disciples over and give a lesson about it, then we should pay attention to it.

And I think if it was important, that important to Jesus, I don't think her heart behind giving was grudgingly, unwillingly giving that penny.

She was excited.

She was joyful in her giving because she knew and she trusted that her father, who has blessed her immensely beyond that penny, was going to continue to bless her even through her generosity.

And then you think about even deeper, we think about the blessing that the deep blessing that we have in Christ.

And the widow didn't even know that the Son of God, the Savior, her Messiah that was sent for her was standing right next to her, and she was still willing to give that last penny.

She had no idea the gift of salvation that was sitting right next to her, standing there, watching her give this last penny.

And we gotta, man, that should convict us.

We now can look back on the sacrifice of Jesus and we can see God's generosity so clearly.

And it should convict us to be so much more generous because we understand how blessed we are.

Sacrificial servant understands the big idea that we had for this morning.

Blessings come from God and they come for a purpose.

Blessings come from God and they come for a purpose.

Sacrificial servant understands that God gives us blessing for the purpose of blessing others, the purpose of living radically generous lives.

God gives us blessings so that we can be a blessing to other people, that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus and advance the kingdom of heaven.

So as we we kind of close out, I challenge you to examine yourselves this morning.

Where are you at?

How are you using the blessings that God has given you?

How are you being generous in every way?

As you look at the blessings God has given you, are you are you holding on to them with a closed hand?

Walking down the street, man, I deserve, I deserve everything I have.

I've worked hard for everything I have.

Why would I give it to someone else?

If this is my last penny, why would I give it to someone else?

I deserve this.

This is mine.

Or are you allowing the blessings that God has given you to flow through you so that others would be blessed, so that others would see the goodness and the generosity of our Father?

Maybe you see yourself as a spontaneous servant.

You're good about kind of meeting a need when it arises, or or or kind of throughout the year giving a few big gifts to big events.

You're just kind of spontaneous, but but you've never really sat down and you've never planned and strategically decided in your own heart, how am I going to live a generous life?

How am I going to consistently, consistently walk with an open hand and understand that everything I have is God's.

Maybe you're more of the strategic servant and you've grown up and you've always been a tither, you've always understood the purpose of it.

But man, maybe you give that tithe and then everything else you view as your own.

Man, I gave God 10%, this is 90%, it's mine.

So when you're walking down the street, man, you might not be very quick to meet an immediate need that is right in front of you.

Maybe you need that compassionate heart that the good Samaritan had.

I want you to examine how you can move towards being a sacrificial, fanatical, radically different servant.

I want you to reflect on how every single thing you have is a blessing from God.

And because of that, it's never yours in the first place.

As we read stories, as I mean, you read about that, the the widow in Mark 12, you gotta, I just, I can't help, when I read stories like that, I can't help to think, what if what if we were just all like that?

I mean, what would the world look like?

If we understood everything we had was from God and we were willing to give everything back to him?

Or willing to give everything to someone, our neighbor who is in need because we understand that God has blessed us to be a blessing to other people, what would our world look like?

As church at the grove, as we go out in the community, how would our community change?

If we were radically generous people.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about paying for your coworkers' lunch, paying for the person in the drive-thru behind you.

That happened to me the other day, and I just I was so thankful.

I just felt so much joy.

So imagine if the entire church, if we were doing that, how much joy we were bringing to the community because we were generous people.

As a church, we have to remember the ways that God has blessed us immensely.

And we have to be that that drives us to the heart of generosity.

And I know it's sometimes it's it's hard to see the blessing of God.

There's difficult seasons in life where it's hard to see the blessings that God has given you.

But we have to understand that we have been blessed immensely.

We have been blessed immensely.

And I know any time in my life where I even just started to doubt God's God's love for me, his faithfulness towards me, much less not seeing the blessings that he's given me, I know every single time that the thing that brings me out of that mindset is just taking time to look back to the cross.

Because, man, when you look at the cross, you see God's heart of generosity in ways that you cannot see anywhere else.

And when you understand that the cross, everything that God gave us to the cross is all we will ever need, then you will understand that you are blessed beyond measure.

I think so many times, like I think even I forget that that grace, the free gift of salvation, it doesn't just pop up out of thin air.

Right?

It's easy to kind of think that you have faith, you confess, and you believe in Jesus Christ, and then you're saved.

It's easy to think that our salvation just pops out of nowhere.

That that nothing happened in order for that to be provided.

But man, when you think about how salvation became possible for us, you will see God's generosity.

You will see how much He has blessed you, how much He has loved you.

Because we gotta understand what my Bible tells me is that I had worked up a debt.

A huge, huge debt.

The Bible tells me that the wages, what I deserved, the payment for my sins, is death.

My Bible tells me that I couldn't do anything to pay back that debt, I couldn't do anything to erase that debt, and I couldn't do anything to pardon myself from that debt.

What my Bible tells me.

What my Bible tells me is that the debt of my sin.

It wasn't forgotten.

It wasn't just dismissed.

The debt of my sin was paid for.

It was paid for every last penny, every last penny that my sin had mounted up, it was paid for.

God is a just God, and he can't just erase sin with nothing.

He he is a just God.

He has to punish what had to be punished.

And my sin had to be punished, it had to be paid for somehow.

So instead of God making me pay that on my own, out of his heart of generosity and love for me, he sent his son to pay that debt for me.

And when we understand that truth, that is where our heart of generosity will come from.

You can't muster up generosity, you can't muster up enough good to just be a generous person.

You've got to understand the generosity that God has shown you, the ways that He has blessed you immensely, at the very least, to the cross of Jesus Christ.

There's no blessing, no possession, no amount of money that you could ever have that will amount more than the gift of salvation that's provided through Jesus Christ.

So if you're having a hard time seeing the blessings of God, then man, remember, reflect that the God of creation sent his only son to die for you, to pay the penalty, to pay the debt that you were held captive to, that you were slave to.

God is a generous God.

He is a God that blesses us immensely, and he wants you to be a blessing to other people.

He wants you to take that message of generosity and love that's found in the gospel and share it to everyone that you encounter.

Because he knows that there is no blessing greater than the story, the good news of the gospel.

God loves you and he has blessed you immensely.

So take those blessings and be a blessing to other people.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the good news of Jesus.

Thank you for the generosity and the blessing that you have given us through your Son.

There is no greater blessing.

There is no more clear way to see your goodness, your faithfulness, and your love and your generosity than through the gospel.

And Father, I pray that the gospel, the love of Christ that we see through it would control us and transform us to be a generous people, radically, radically generous people, sacrificial servants.

Because we understand that everything we have been given, everything we have been given is not ours.

We don't deserve a thing.

Everything we are given is yours, and you are simply calling us to steward it until you tell us to do otherwise.

Give us open hands as we walk through our community.

Give us eyes to see ways that we can bless other people.

Father, use us to be a blessing, a blessing, and a message of hope to the people in our lives.

Transform us into the image of Jesus.

Make us a radically generous people.

God, we love you and we thank you for your word.

The conviction and the calling that it brings to our lives and the way that it guides us through our everyday lives, Father.

Let us live it out.

Give us strength to live it out, to believe it and live it out.

God, we love you and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.