There are all kinds of weird and creative ways we can spend money.
But today I want to talk about what might be the single best use of money in the whole world. I want to talk about the idea of charity.
Now just to be clear, I am not asking you to give money to the church. And I’m also not saying that anyone has to give to charity. Because our Bible passage today is about voluntary giving to a charity far away. So I hope you don’t feel pressured to give today because that is not my intent.
But my big question today is: Why would a person want to give away as much money as they can?
My answer is, if we do charity well, we are the first to benefit, and we are the second to benefit. And I’ll show you what I mean as we go through our Bible passage.
I want to read to you the chorus of one of the songs in the movie “The Greatest Showman”:
“When the sharpest words wanna cut me down I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown ’em out I am brave, I am bruised I am who I’m meant to be, this is me Look out ’cause here I come And I’m marching on to the beat I drum I’m not scared to be seen I make no apologies, this is me.”
How empowering. How validating. It makes me so proud to be myself! A lot of us have asked ourselves, what kind of person am I? What kind of person do I want to be? Well, according to this chorus, just look deep within yourself and that’s you! That’s who you’re meant to be! You should express yourself! Those interests. Those desires. All those things that make you unique. Just go live it out!
Now, this idea is great if you’re like Albert Einstein or something, and all you care about is advancing science. But what if deep down inside, you’re a jerk? What if you’re struggling with perverse fantasies or addiction? Can you still say, “I make no apologies, this is me”? Or the bigger question is, are you hopeless to remain this way because this happens to be who you’re meant to be?
No. There is hope. You can change, or I’d even argue, you are MEANT to be changed. That’s God’s plan for you.
Today we’re talking about spiritual formation, how your spirit is formed. EVERYONE goes through a spiritual formation; everyone has been formed and is BEING formed.
So who you are, your motivations, the way you think, what you desire, what you NATURALLY do, these are all results of being spiritually formed.
Now, as Christians, God has an intended DIRECTION for our formation! And spoiler, that’s towards Christlikeness, becoming like Jesus. And this idea is all over the Bible but I want to give a framework of Christian Spiritual Formation that we specifically see in today’s passage.
People can be frustrating, but it’s a bit easier to take criticism if it’s a stranger online because you don’t see them every day. But many times, it’s the people closest to us like close friends, a family member or even a spouse who can cause the most pain in our lives.
So, my big question today is: What can bring peace to our chaotic relationships? Our Bible passage today tells us that love is the answer.
Our big question today is: How can we get better at conflict management?
Our Bible passage teaches us to remember eternity. If we’ve been wronged, remember eternity. Then we’ll see which conflicts are worth fighting about, and we’ll remember the importance of love and mission and forgiveness and community, even in the middle of our conflict.
But sometimes, we are the offender. In this case, we need to remember eternity too. We need to see how bad our sin is and see how great God’s grace is. When we do this, we won’t be crushed by our guilt, but we’ll turn away from our sins and we’ll start living a better life.
All of us have choices to make. We have choices in our love life. We have choices for our schooling and our career. We have choices for our friendship and our free time and our family life. Our choices will determine the direction of our lives.
So my big question today is: How can we make better life choices?
The answer I want to show you today is: we need to think like soldiers.
Because, just like soldiers:
We need to remember the mission, and
We need to accept our limits
My task today is to show you these ideas from the Bible, so you can build your life directly on God’s word.
We start a new series on Paul’s letters to the Corinthians.
I really believe that every Christian is meant to experience a type of fellowship where you feel loved, where you feel like you belong and where you experience Jesus in every aspect of your life. Maybe you’ve found that at this church, and that’s great! But a little warning: we can’t take that for granted.
We have to protect it because sometimes there are sins so great that they can break the fellowship. This is the reason why the church needs to have standards to protect its members and to protect its reputation. So, my big question today is What moral standards should we have in the Church?
