Overflowing Together | Rev. Paul Lawler

Welcome to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Join us as we dive into this week's sermon that challenges our hearts and minds to grow closer to Christ.

We pray that your heart is inspired and transformed by God's Word.

We have two scripture readings this morning.

First from the book of Acts, and second from the book of Malachi, if you would prepare our hearts from Acts 2, starting at verse 44.

Would you hear this, the Word of God?

And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing to the proceeds to all as any had need.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

And also from Malachi chapter three, beginning in verse six.

Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

From from the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statues and have not kept them.

So return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

But you say, How shall we return?

Will man rob God?

Yet you are robbing me.

But you say, How have we robbed you?

In your tithes and contributions.

You are cursed with a curse for for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that that where there may be food in your house, and thereby put me to the test, said the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Amen and amen.

I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My name is Paul Lawler.

I have the honor of serving as a senior pastor of Christ Methodist.

We welcome you today, whether you're a regular attender, member, or first-time guest.

Delighted that you're here.

So, church family, I guess that most of us at some point in our life have experienced moments where our hearts are really full.

Might come in times when you're sitting around a meal with your family, might come when you're out to dinner with friends, but there are times where the fellowship and the richness and the abundance of being together is so rich and so life-giving.

And I'm mindful that when we experience abundance, particularly as followers of Jesus Christ, that that abundance is never supposed or designed to stop with us, doesn't terminate with us.

In fact, from Genesis to Revelation, something you'll notice is that God does bless people.

In fact, we just finished a series on the Beatitudes that emphasizes that reality.

God does bless people, but God blesses you so that you're not only a blessing to him, but you're a blessing to others.

And when God's people learn to live into that, not merely as individuals, but learn to live into that together, something remarkable emerges.

The church becomes more than a gathering.

It is that, but it's more than that.

The church, as it's its biblical design, becomes a family.

This is why, in word from Pastor Paul, oftentimes I say dear faith family, it becomes a community.

The church becomes a witness to a greater glory, which is God Himself.

And it's also a place where God, through his people, expresses generosity to a broken world.

Now look with me in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

We're aware that the context, these passages, the Holy Spirit, or it illustrates that the Holy Spirit has been poured out.

In fact, you may remember, 3,000 people are brand new first generation Christians.

So suddenly these believers are not merely people who believe the same things.

These are people that the scripture illustrates, they not only belong to God, they belong to one another.

Listen to how Luke describes them.

Verse 44 of chapter 2.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common.

Now, Malachi then gives us a word about remarkable generosity that flows through the people of God.

Verse 10 in chapter 3 of Malachi, bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts.

If I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Now, you put those two passages together and we discover a powerful truth.

And that is, when God's people trust in God's provision, God's blessings overflow through God's people.

So today, what I wanted to do in this third part of our fall stewardship series is talk to you on the topic of overflowing together, not just as an individual or families, but together as a church family.

And I think all of us know this is deeper than giving more or raising a budget or meeting a financial goal.

But really, when we look at the biblical passages that illustrate these truths, this is about becoming the kind of people that have been so transformed by the generosity of God in what he's done in Jesus Christ at the cross through his death, burial, resurrection, the sending of the power of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of the Word of God among us, that generosity becomes a part of who we are collectively.

So let me share a few things with you.

First, let's affirm this reality from the Bible.

We overflow as God's people because God has already poured himself into us.

Be mindful that when you became a believer, the scripture teaches that God in Christ dwells in you.

So let's begin by looking at the character of God.

Malachi 3, 6 says this, for I the Lord do not change.

And so what God is essentially saying here is that because I do not change, God is declaring over your life, I am faithful.

I do not change.

You may change, your circumstances may change, the economy may change, your health may change, your career may change, your bank account may change, but God does not change.

We don't give because we are certain about tomorrow.

We give because we are certain about God who declares, I do not change.

And that, loved ones, is a life-giving important distinction.

If your confidence as a believer is in your circumstances, you'll never be secure enough to get outside of yourself to be a giver because you will always look for another reason to close your hands and hold on.

I need a little more in savings.

I need a little more to get the kids through college.

I need a little bit more to pay off the mortgage.

I need a little bit more to prepare for retirement.

I need a little bit more to fix the car.

And all those things are legitimate.

I'm not minimizing those things, but there will never be a moment where the world says to you, congratulations, you have enough, you can relax completely.

Because we all know that the world doesn't work that way.

There's always another bill, there's always another repair, there's always another opportunity that comes along that we feel we've got to take advantage of.

There's always another uncertainty.

But be mindful that God has declared over your life, I do not change.

And that's where generosity begins, not with what's in your hand, but with who is in your heart.

Now, I know that many of us have raised kids, and I look back at my children, our children, when they were young, and they would do chores and we would reward them, or they would get an allowance.

And I'm I'm mindful, is this not what happens with God the Father when we too take on the image of Jesus?

And we give of ourselves to others.

We're becoming more like the Son, who said, There's a greater blessing on your life when you give than you when you receive.

I remember learning this very early in my Christian walk, and this is I'm not recommending this is the way it should be done, but I I'd been a Christian just for a few months, and I'm washing, I'm spraying my little Toyota off with a spray washer.

And this man comes up, he he's a beggar, and he asks for money, and all I had was a$10 bill.

I was, in fact, I was headed to pick Missy up for a date.

And I thought, well, I won't have any money.

I know a lot of you are going, or what were you going to do with Missy for 10 bucks?

Okay, I get that.

I get that.

But I gave him my$10.

Now, I'm not saying that's the way we should do this.

If you've ever read the book When Helping Hurts, there's there's some better guidelines, but that's what I did.

And I remember this sense that washed over me.

There was a joy I couldn't explain.

There was a peace.

And even though I was a relatively new Christian, those words of Jesus came to me.

There's a greater blessing on your life when you give than when you receive.

And so I'm I'm mindful that when we give, we are becoming more like Jesus.

Secondly, overflowing together means we stop thinking just about me, myself, and I, and we start thinking about who we are together as the people of God.

I remember when I was in Sunday school as a child, and the teacher would say naively, I would say, Why did God create us?

I had a lot of questions as a kid, and why did God create us?

And the teacher looked back and said, Well, God was lonely, Paul, and he needed us.

And as naturally as I came to know Christ and understood the nature of God, began to understand God doesn't need anything.

He's infinite, he's loving, and he has deep fellowship in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

He has deep, rich, life-giving community that he doesn't keep to himself.

He sent his son to redeem us, but he's not lonely, he's not needy.

In fact, the Bible even opens in the book of Genesis that it's not good for a human being to be alone.

The first thing that God declares in Scripture that's not good is aloneness.

And the reason we elevate that truth is because we're designed to live as followers of Jesus in deep, overflowing, life-giving community with Jesus and one another.

Look with me in verse 44, Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And all who believed were together.

Notice the word together.

The early church was not simply a collection of individuals who happened to attend the same worship service.

No, they were family.

And that is what we are as a body of believers.

They thought differently together, they saw things differently together, and they held their possessions differently as well.

Look with me at verse 45.

And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.

Now, we need to first clarify what this passage doesn't mean.

This is not teaching that private ownership is inherently wrong.

I've heard some persons hijack this scripture at times, and I cringe.

That's cringeworthy.

That is a gross misapplication of this verse.

The early Christians were not commanded to liquidate everything they own.

Let's make note of that.

In fact, throughout the New Testament, we find Christians, including Jesus' disciples, owning houses and possessions.

The point here, however, is much deeper than that.

They no longer viewed what they possessed as existing only for themselves.

They asked a different question, not how much of this belongs to me?

But how can what God has entrusted to me become a blessing to someone else?

Blessed to be a blessing.

That's a symptom of the transformation of Jesus in our own hearts and our lives.

Think about the distinction between a reservoir and a river.

A reservoir, as you all know, collects water.

It holds water, stores water, it can be useful.

But a river is different.

A river flows, it receives water, and then it moves it to somewhere else.

That's what God pictures for you and for me.

Not simply a reservoir of blessing, but rivers of blessing.

God pours into us so that He can pour out through us.

And here's the interesting thing about a river the water doesn't become stale because it keeps moving.

There's a church in South Georgia called Boiling Waters Methodist Church.

Next to Boiling Waters on the church property is an artesian well.

Well, years ago, the trustees of Boiling Waters Methodist Church thought, wouldn't it be neat if we built a dam around the artesian well?

And we could even, we could put fish in it.

And in the community, we can fish, maybe, maybe even use the fish to feed the poor.

They just, their wills got to turning.

The trustees, they got this novel idea.

Some of them owned some farming equipment, not a big deal, move dirt around.

And so they began to move the dirt around and they dammed up the artesian well.

Only as they did so, the water pressure equalized.

And instead of having boiling waters coming up out of the artesian well, you had still waters and moss and muck and weed began to grow in the reservoir.

No movement.

So the trustees met again and they reflected on the reality of what they had created, and they busted the dam, moved away the dirt, and the waters flowed again.

Boiling waters, Methodist Church.

So we see the picture.

A spring stays fresh, a river stays fresh, there's movement, there's life, there's overflow.

And loved ones, if I could speak tenderly in your heart this morning, perhaps one reason some Christians feel spiritually stale and stagnant is because everything pours into them, but it stops with them.

They receive, they accumulate, they store, they protect, but God's blessing was never designed to terminate with us.

Blessing is meant to become an overflow.

Secondly, overflowing believers are invited to test God.

Did you see that in the passage?

We come to Malachi 3 and God says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse.

Then he says something completely remarkable, a bit counterintuitive, and thereby put me to the test.

Church family, that's unusual language, is it not?

The Bible doesn't invite us very often to test the creator of the universe.

But here God invites his people to trust in him, even in eras that are often difficult, to trust him and to know that he does not change and even test him in the revelation of what he says here.

Because this particular area is an area that a lot of us struggle to test the Lord.

It's in regard to money and resources.

Why?

Because money has a way of revealing what we really believe.

The Bible says, Jesus said, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Notice that Jesus didn't say, where your heart is, there your treasure will eventually follow.

He said, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And so what Jesus, the Son of God, is proclaiming is that our money is connected to our hearts.

And that's why generosity has everything to do with your growing relationship with Jesus, your spiritual formation, your discipleship.

And every time we give, we're saying, God, you don't change.

I trust you more than money.

I trust you more than the size of my portfolio.

God, you are my provider.

God, my security is not in money.

My security is in you, not my bank account.

God, I believe that you are greater and your purposes are greater than my comfort.

And loved ones, you know what you call that?

Worship.

Worship is putting God on the throne.

In the Old Testament, the people of God got in trouble because it was outward and it wasn't inward.

And if you read the prophets, God did not have kind things to say for people who made it all outward, but it wasn't flowing from the heart.

Imagine this morning that you're going skydiving.

I know that some of you are going, that's not me.

I get that, but it that's what imagination is for.

You're handed a parachute and you're instructed to put it on.

But as you're standing at the door of the airplane, you say something like, I don't know about putting it on.

I'll just hold it.

And that sounds absurd because the whole purpose of the parachute is for you to wear and for it to be trusted.

It is not designed for you to admire it, you don't frame it, you don't carefully store it in your closet, you jump with it.

And loved ones, faith in Jesus works the same way.

As I taught you last week.

From the scripture, faith has substance.

Faith comes by hearing.

It's not just make-believe, it's not self-motivation.

Faith is fed, it has substance.

And the substance comes from the word of God.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

Believers, strap on the word of God.

Wear the word of God in your heart.

This is how faith works.

These are the things that we build upon that we say we believe about God.

But generosity gives those beliefs somewhere to land.

We can say outwardly, God, you're my provider.

But giving actually says, I trust in you, O God.

We can say outwardly, yes, I agree with the orthodoxy of Scripture that God owns everything.

But giving says, God, I recognize your over ownership.

We can say outwardly, Jesus Christ is Lord.

But giving is one of the ways that I can say before the Lord, even my possessions belong under his lordship.

So overflowing believers are invited to trust God.

And then overflowing together meets real needs.

Now, Acts 2 doesn't describe generosity as an aspect of a spiritual people.

It becomes incredibly practical because verse 45 in chapter 2 says they were distributing the proceeds to all as anyone had need.

Now, notice these last words, as anyone had need.

Now, what that tells us, church family, bada boom, listen closely, is that the church sees people.

Think about that.

It's one thing to be around people, it's another another matter to see them.

Real people, real needs, real burdens, real circumstances.

And they responded.

That's what generosity does.

Generosity opens our eyes.

So I want to invite you to think about a couple of things.

Here's a building that we're in.

It's called a sanctuary.

And there are many of them throughout the city of Memphis and beyond, around the world.

This is a mission station.

It's a station where we, the people of God, gather corporately to magnify God, to come together.

And it is a place of mobilization for discipleship and mission to follow the commands of Jesus.

If the tool matters, it matters because it gives us a place to honor God.

And it matters all over the world.

So what I'm inviting you to do is for a moment open your eyes again, open the eyes of your heart, and just recognize it matters.

But I also want to invite you to reflect on what Pastor Ken prayed over us this morning when he was praying over what the body of Christ is overflowing together doing in this city.

And he was only scratching the surface.

He did a great job, but I'm just mindful that through the body of Christ, that those that have been human trafficked have been are being ministered to, sister and sister, world relief, global nations, arise to read.

And I've shared with you before that if you read the data, when a child cannot read by third grade, you can predict their future, and it's not good.

It's one of the most significant justice issues happening on our watch right now.

Capstone Education Group, SOS, BDC.

And what I'm saying to you, church family, you're familiar with all these acronyms, you're familiar with these ministries, is let's not forget to open our eyes and see what God is doing as the body overflows together.

Several years ago, we disaffiliated from our former denomination.

And I stood in this pulpit and said to you that disaffiliation ultimately is not about disaffiliation.

Disaffiliation is about what disaffiliation is unto.

The new day we would step into.

I'm mindful as we've joined the Global Methodist Church.

And now, as you honor God with your generosity, we're no longer sending large amounts of money to a denomination that I would submit was not getting kingdom work done.

That's a bold statement.

I stand behind it.

But today, as we send 1% to the denomination and 3% at a conference level, loved ones, the ROI has shifted.

Listen to me, this return on investment.

Over 500 new churches have been planted around the world in the last 24 months.

There are between 200 to 300 new churches coming into the Global Methodist Church in Brazil in the next 24 months.

Central America has grown from two Global Methodist churches to 17 in the last two years.

Zambia grew from 21 to over 50 new global Methodist churches.

Eight pastors are currently in training there now to plant new churches.

Western Europe has grown from two global Methodist churches to 24 churches in 24 months.

That is a symptom of a new day.

And church, what I'm saying to you is that sometimes the greatest obstacles isn't selfishness.

It's simply that we don't see or perceive what God is already doing through his family.

Let's see it.

A church that ministers to the marginalized in our city, as Christ Methodist does.

A church that teaches and disciples children centered in the gospel.

It's not that way everywhere.

Thank you, God.

A church that sends missionaries to Africa and to different parts of the world.

A church in which God is speaking to emerging generations.

You're aware of our own Rebecca Tillman, who feels called as a college student to give her life to world missions.

A church that plants new churches, as this church has in Asia for the last several years.

A church that shares the gospel, that baptizes brand new Christians regularly, as has been the case in our services.

Glory to God, including not only first generation believers, but recently a young man out of Islam.

May God be glorified.

A church that opens its hands, the kind of church that becomes a visible picture of the character of God.

And what I'm saying to you to encourage you, Christ Church, is that you are overflowing together and meeting real needs for the glory of God.

Don't fail to perceive it.

And then finally, as we prepare to come to the communion table, I would submit to you that overflowing together creates joy.

Joy in the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2.46, look at what happens happening here.

Day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes.

They receive their food with glad and generous hearts.

Now you see that.

Glad and generous.

And that the reason is that generosity and joy are connected.

We often assume that generosity will make us less happy because we have less.

But the New Testament and experience presents a different picture.

When we become generous, something happens inside of us.

We discover that there is a joy greater than accumulation.

There is joy in blessing others.

And that's what happens through generosity.

I remember I'm in a Jeep in Asia.

And I've got in the back of that Jeep the CFO of the Nectar Corporation, founded in Huntsville, Alabama.

And I am mindful he has stayed in some of the nicest hotels all around the world.

Ritz Carlton is an afterthought to him.

And he looks at me after days of watching people come to know Jesus Christ out of Hinduism.

And he looks at me with tears coming down his cheek, grown man, very successful.

And he says, Paul, other than the day that I married my wife and the birth of my children, this has been the most joy-filled day of my entire life.

It's more blessed to give than to receive.

That's the heart of God.

That's John three sixteen.

For God so loved you that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Love gives, grace gives, joy gives.

And when God's love and his grace in Christ takes root in our hearts, then generosity becomes increasingly natural.

Just flows.

And loved one's overflowing makes the gospel of Christ visible.

Look with me again.

Verse 7, praising God, having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Now, here's the deal.

Why did people notice the church?

Because something was different.

The gospel wasn't merely something that they believed with head knowledge, it changed the way they lived.

They worshiped differently, they cared for people differently, they embraced persecution together.

And what was the result?

People were drawn to Jesus.

I've got a dear friend, his name's David, who lives in Laos, who grew up there.

And the church there is persecuted.

And he says this when we are persecuted, he has a sense of humor, by the way, he says, when we are persecuted, we are more unified.

And when we are more unified, others notice and their curiosity is awakened.

And when they're curious, we share the gospel and people come to know Jesus.

I'm just mindful that he's illustrating that they're better together.

It's enormously important.

And our generosity, loved ones, is ultimately ultimately about the church, but more ultimately about the gospel itself, because the gospel becomes compelling when people see the gospel of Jesus Christ embodied.

When the world sees people genuinely loving one another, people pay attention.

When the world sees Christians sacrificing for people they don't even know, people pay attention.

Now, I'm about to be assigned as a bishop in the Global Methodist Church.

And one of the areas I'm given responsibility for in the world is Northern Nigeria.

Now, if you're curious about what's going on in Nigeria, Google it.

Don't do it now, please.

But Google, Google Nigerian Christians, and then just witness what's happening there.

Church, I want you to know this in God's poetry.

The people that are persecuting Christians in Nigeria are made up of Boko Haram and the militant wing of the Falani people.

That Christchurch, years ago, took up a sizable offering to team with one of our ministry partners to reach the Falani people with the gospel.

There have been persons in our church family who've gone into Africa to help equip some of the first generation Falani believers that are breaking this stronghold of the darkness that has possessed so many hearts in this people group.

And I want to remind you that you're overflowing together and you're making a difference.

When the world sees Christians caring for the vulnerable, people pay attention.

When the world sees people who have every reason to be selfish, choosing generosity, people ask why.

And that is an opportunity to say, because Jesus Christ changed my life.

And I want to remind you that just as this passage in Malachi does, it gives us an extraordinary image when God declares over your life, when you're overflowing and giving, God declares, see if I will not open a window from heaven over your life and over your lives.

And I want to remind you before we come to the communion table, there is a window in heaven.

And God declares that He can open it over a church.

He can open it over your life.

He can open it over your family.

And I want to remind you that we're called to overflow, not just as individuals, but overflow together as a church.

One family, one mission, one gospel, one Lord, that we're called upon to overflow into a city, neighborhoods, families, and into nations.

And ultimately, according to the words of Jesus, the overflow overflows into eternity.

Because Jesus said, don't just lay up treasures on earth.

Love one, lay up treasures in heaven.

So may God, in his mercies, give us glad and generous hearts.

May he teach us to trust him more deeply.

May he free us from the fear that tells us that we'll never have enough.

May he give us eyes to see people and needs around us.

May he give us courage to open our hands.

And may Christ Methodist Church become so full of generosity, rooted in the love of Jesus and His grace, that it simply overflows into a broken and dying world.

Loved ones, let's come to this table.

This table that through the shed blood of Jesus and his pierced body makes all of this possible and a reality for us for his glory in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ.

To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at ChristchurchMemphis.org.

We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.