Generosity in Ministry
Sermon Notes
Introduction:
Hey everybody my name’s Louis I’m the lead pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to gather with you both onsite and online. At this time we can dismiss the children to children’s church. If you didn’t get to check your child in, please see our children’s ministry leaders in the back and they’d be more than happy to assist you with that...Now like I said last week, we’re taking a short break from the teaching series we’ve been doing called The Story, so we can do a 4 wk series we’re calling Outward. It’s called Outward, and it’s all about developing a culture of generosity, which might cause some of you to cringe, because you know when churches talk about generosity they often focus on our wealth. But that isn’t the case with this series, because we want to give you a more holistic biblical view of generosity which entails so much more than our wealth. It entails so much more than writing big checks, it entails living a lifestyle of generosity.
For example, you can be generous with your checkbook, but not generous with your time...You can be generous with your checkbook, but not generous with your talents, with using your talents to help others in need...You can be generous with your checkbook, but not generous with extending forgiveness to others...Generosity entails so much more than being generous with your checkbook, it entails living a lifestyle of generosity, and that’s what we’re talking about in this series. Last week Jesus taught us that generosity entails showing hospitality and forgiveness in our relationships, and this week he’ll teach us that generosity entails serving others, so let’s turn to Luke ch 9 and get into it. If you’re new to your bible just open your bible to the middle, keep turning right, and you’ll find the Gospel of Luke. We’ll be in Luke 9:57-10:2. Title of today’s message is Generosity in Ministry, and the big idea is generosity entails serving, instead of being the one served...Generosity entails serving, instead of being the one served...
Context:
Here’s your context. In Luke 9 Jesus sends out his 12 disciples to serve the surrounding villages in the area, and to proclaim the good news of the gospel. He’s been teaching them with his words, with his actions, with his own lifestyle being the ultimate example of generosity. But now he’s teaching them with practical hands-on experience, by sending them out to serve in the surrounding villages and to proclaim the gospel. Now as they’re leaving one of the villages Jesus comes across a few people wanting to follow him. As we study his interactions with them we’ll learn that generosity of service entails the following 3 steps. It entails #1 Stepping toward Jesus, #2 Stepping away from yourself, #3 Stepping outward toward others. Generosity of service entails stepping toward, stepping away, and stepping outward. Let’s check it out.
The Word:
Luke 9:57-62 states this, “As they were traveling on the road someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ 58 Jesus told him, ‘Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’ 59 Then he said to another, ‘Follow me.’
‘Lord,’ he said, ‘first let me go bury my father.’ 60 But he told him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.’ 61 Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.’ 62 But Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” Okay so notice we have three people saying I will follow you. It’s three people stepping toward Jesus, saying I will follow you. It’s a step in the right direction. Taking a step toward Jesus is always a step in the right direction, and we’ll see why as we continue reading the text. There’s one word, one little word that’s critical to understanding this text, and I’ll read it again so we don’t miss it.
Again vs. 57-62 states, “As they were traveling on the road someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ 58 Jesus told him, ‘Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’ 59 Then he said to another, ‘Follow me.’
‘Lord,’ he said, ‘first let me go bury my father.’ 60 But he told him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.’ 61 Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.’ 62 But Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” The one little word that’s critical to understanding this text is the word first...It’s the word first...It’s critical because all three people are saying I’ll follow you Jesus, but they aren’t putting Jesus first in their lives. They’re taking a step toward Jesus, but they aren’t committing their entire lives to Jesus, because something else is first in their lives. If we don’t realize this we’ll misinterpret what Jesus is saying, and think he’s being unreasonable, unempathetic in his responses. But he isn’t being unreasonable or unempathetic, instead he’s challenging them to take the next step of faith, which is one of the hardest steps to take. Remember the 1st step is to step toward Jesus, which they did when they said they’ll follow him. But it’s the 2nd step that’s one of the hardest steps, and it’s to step away from yourself. All three people are having a hard time stepping away from themselves, and it’s because they have other firsts in their lives. So let’s take a closer look at each of them.
Again vs. 57, “As they were traveling on the road someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ 58 Jesus told him, ‘Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’”When this person says I’ll follow you wherever you go, it’s because he thinks following Jesus will be an easy comfortable life. So Jesus says “You don’t really want to follow me wherever I go. What you want is to live an easy comfortable life. But if you follow me it won’t be an easy comfortable life, it’ll be a sacrificial cross life.” See the reason Jesus says he doesn’t have a place to rest his head, is because he left the place he rested his head. He left his comfortable heavenly home, to live in our uncomfortable sinful world. He came not to live an easy comfortable life, but to live a sacrificial cross life. He came to serve us even to the point of laying his life down, to the point of dying for our sins on the cross. He came not to live an easy comfortable life, but to live a sacrificial cross life, and he knows what this guy really wants first. It isn’t to follow Jesus, instead he’s hoping for a comfortable life from Jesus.
Vs. 59, “Then he said to another, ‘Follow me.’ ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘first let me go bury my father.’ 60 But he told him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.’” Burying a deceased parent was an important duty back then just like it is today, and we know Jesus wasn’t against this based on his other teachings. So nothing’s wrong with this guy’s request, but Jesus responds like this because he knows this guy isn’t really concerned about burying his father. He’s just making excuses for not following Jesus, for not wanting to put Jesus first in his life. So when Jesus says let the dead bury the dead, he isn’t being unreasonable or unempathetic, instead he’s challenging the guy to take the next step of faith. I mean clearly Jesus isn’t telling him to literally ignore his father’s death, because the dead can’t literally bury the dead. A physically dead person can’t bury another physically dead person. So what Jesus is saying is “Let the spiritually dead bury the spiritually dead, because I’m giving you a chance to be spiritually alive in me. I’m giving you a chance to stop making excuses, to stop putting other things first in your life, so you can be spiritually alive in me.” It isn’t about a literal physical death, it’s about a spiritual death, an invitation truly follow Jesus, and become spiritually alive.
Vs. 61, “Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.’ 62 But Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” Jesus again sees through the excuses. He knows this guy is like the other guys, and he doesn’t want to put Jesus first in his life. So Jesus uses a metaphor of somebody putting their hands to the plow. He says when you’re plowing a field you can’t look back taking your eyes off the plow, because the plow will veer off course and you’ll mess up the field. You have to keep your eyes on the plow and not look back. His point is this guy took the right 1st step saying I’ll follow you, but instead of looking back he needs to look forward and take the next step of actually following Jesus. What we see with all three guys is they take the 1st step toward Jesus, but they have a hard time taking the 2nd step away from themselves. All three are saying “I’ll follow you, but first...I’ll follow you Jesus, but first...” Everybody has a first in their life, things preventing us from serving Jesus fully, and serving others outwardly. Like the guys in the text we have a hard time stepping away from ourselves. We’re self-centered, self-absorbed, me-first people who like doing whatever we want. We like doing whatever we want, and putting Jesus first means we’ll have to do whatever he wants, which makes us flinch like the guys in the text. I mean Jesus promises in John 10:10 to give us not just life, but an abundantly joyful life. If we truly believed that, then surrendering our time, talents, treasures, wealth, surrendering our entire lives to Jesus would be easy, because it means we’re surrendering our lives to a more abundantly joyful life than the one we’re living. But we flinch to surrender our entire lives to Jesus, because we don’t want to let go of some things, we don’t want to let go of some of our firsts. We flinch because we’re self-centered, self-absorbed, me-first people who like to do whatever we want.
The reason we need to put Jesus first, is because we’ll just keep seeking to put ourselves first. We see it in kids when they start using the word “mine.” We see it in teenagers when they start thinking they know better than their parents, they know everything, and the entire world revolves around them. We see it when we choose our degrees and careers for personal gain, and we see it when we don’t serve our families because we want some downtime, some “me” time. This is why you need to take your 1st step toward Jesus. It’s because taking your 1st step toward Jesus helps you take a 2nd step away from yourself. It helps you to take a 2nd step away from your self-centered, self-absorbed, me-first life. You can’t have generosity of service without taking a step away from yourself, away from your self-centered, self-absorbed, me-first life. But when you step toward Jesus, when you truly put Jesus first in your life, it means you’re no longer first in life. You’ve taken yourself off the throne of your life, put Jesus on the throne of your life, and that frees you to be generous with your life. It frees you to be generous toward serving Jesus and others. You can’t outwardly serve Jesus and others, if you’re inwardly serving yourself.
Chapter 10:1-2, “After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and he sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 He told them, ‘The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.’” Notice Jesus sends them out. He sends 72 of his disciples outward toward others. Generosity of service entails 1st a step toward Jesus, 2nd a step away from yourself, and 3rd a step outward toward others. Generosity of service can’t happen until you step outward toward others. This is what Jesus is doing here with 72 of his disciples, and he does the same thing in ch 9 with 12 of his leaders. In Luke 9:1-2 it says Jesus sent out 12 of his leaders to preach the gospel and minister to others. So in ch’s 9-10 Jesus repeatedly teaches his followers to be sent outward toward others, and what’s interesting is many scholars believe the number 72 has symbolic reasons relating to Noah and the flood. Its because after the flood God re-populates the earth again, and Genesis ch 10 records all the nations that existed in the post-flood era. The total number of nations recorded, is 72. After that the number 72 became symbolic to Jews, it represented all the nations of the earth. So many scholars believe the reason Jesus sends out 72 disciples, is to teach his followers to scatter to the nations. It’s to teach us to live sent lives, to step outward to spread the gospel and minister to others. Jesus doesn’t just want to bless you, he also wants to bless others through you. It’s what the Lord tells Abraham in Genesis 12. He tells Abraham in Genesis 12:2, “I’ll bless you, I’ll make your name great, and you’ll be a blessing.” The way my friend and pastor J.D. Greear puts it, “God is like a spiritual tornado. He’ll never pull you in except to send you out. He’ll never bless you except to be a blessing. If you get sucked into the vortex of his power, it’s because he has a plan to powerfully send you out.” Jesus draws us in with the love he displayed on the cross, then sends us out to display his love to the world.
So generosity of service for Christians is meant to be a joyful response to the generosity of service he’s shown us on the cross. Jesus doesn’t just want you to come in here to have your needs met, he also wants you to be sent out to serve others in your home, school, work, city, and neighborhood. It’s why we’re doing our Second Harvest Ministry, raising food for families struggling in our city outside our church, in preparation for Thanksgiving. It’s why we’re also doing our Winter Festival, raising money to provide hurricane relief for people in our city still struggling from Hurricane Ian. We’ll share more details about these things at the end of the service, but my point is that Jesus doesn’t just pull us in to bless us, he also sends us out to bless others. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” The Greek word for workmanship is poiema, and it’s where we get the word poem from. Ephesians 2 is saying when you become a follower of Jesus, he’ll turn your life into a poem that displays the beauty of his love. Your life poem won’t always be easy and comfortable like the first guy wanted. Your life poem will certainly include some hurts, hardships, stumbling me-first moments, but Jesus won’t quit on you. He’ll keep working on your heart turning it into a poem that’ll display the beauty of his love. So if you want to be a better spouse, a better parent, a better person, and more generous in serving others, then you need to let Jesus turn your heart into a loving heart like his. You need to surrender your self-centered, self-absorbed, me-first heart, into the hands of his loving heart. You need to 1st step toward Jesus, 2nd step away from yourself, and 3rd step outward toward others. It’s step toward, step away, and step outward.
The Big Idea:
The big idea of the message is generosity entails serving, instead of being the one served. The greatest example we have of this, is Jesus and the generosity he displayed on the cross. In Matthew 20:28 Jesus said “I came not to be served, but to serve and give my life up as a ransom for many.” He came to serve us even to the point of dying for our sins on the cross. He gave his entire life up for you, are you willing to give your entire life up for him?...Both skeptics and believers, are you willing to give your entire life up for Jesus today?...
Don’t hesitate like the people in the text saying “I will, but first...I’ll follow you Jesus, but first...” Instead make the decision to say right now, “Jesus I give my entire life up to you...I surrender my me-first life, and give my entire life to you...” The me-first life is such a draining life, constantly fighting for things you want, constantly fighting for first place. Jesus wants to free us from that draining me-first life, by putting him first in our life. So make the decision to give up your me-first life, and put Jesus first in your life. The more places you put him first in your life, the more free your life will be. The more places you put him first in your life, the more generous your life will be, and the more you’ll experience the abundantly joyful life he promises.