Transcript
There's always an issue for every believer and it's, "How would God have me live within the community with my unbelieving neighbors?" And I've been thinking a lot about this as cultural things are happening that are challenging to Christians that make us wonder how we fit in our own culture and I've been thinking about the biblical story.
Embedding Our Story in the Story of Redemption
You know, one of the things that God wants us to do is to embed our story in the larger story of redemption. So in a real way, we're living the redemptive story where we live everyday. What is God's story about and how can I relive God's story with my neighbors?
Maybe another way of saying that is, "How is it that God responded to me? What's the character of His responses to me and how can I mirror, how can I image those responses toward my neighbors because I've been called to be an ambassador?"
What's the only thing an ambassador ever does? An ambassador represents and so, how can I represent the energy of God's responses to me with my neighbor? How can I live out the biblical story in the context of the people that God, in His sovereignty, has chosen me to be around? Remember, you don't actually choose your address. You think you do, but God does. He chooses the exact place where we will live and the exact length of our days.
Now, the first thing that impresses me is that the Bible, the biblical story, the grand story of redemption is absolutely a generosity story. It is mind blowing generosity that drives the story. It's captured in those words in John 3. "For God so loved the world that He [what's the next word, what's the verb?] gave."
We Serve a Giving God
We serve a giving God, a God who gives and gives and gives and gives and gives and gives and gives and never stops giving. He's glorious and holy and perfect in His generosity. You see that at the fall of Adam and Eve. Here's this outrageous act of rebellion and embedded in God's response is awesome generosity.
God could have said, "I'm going to wipe out you. I'm going to wipe out the entire world. I'm the Lord Almighty. You're not going to do this to me." But in His response to Adam and Eve, He says, "I'm going to fix this thing." And in His response, He predicts the coming of Jesus and the salvation that will turn this story around. How much was God willing to give? He was so willing to give what we couldn't earn that He gave us His Son, the murder of His own Son, so that we would have relationship with Him.
Now, I want to mirror generosity in my relationship with my neighbors. How about not being so busy that you can't take time to have a bit of conversation with the people around? How about generally asking them how they're doing? How about stopping and treating them like human beings?
How about that guy at the local store that you see all the time? How about caring about him? How about asking about his life. How about responding to him in generosity? How about that local restaurant that you go to all the time? How about giving people big, beautiful, generous tips way above what you're supposed. Don't get out your calculator and figure out 15% because you don't want to give anything more. How about being known for your generosity?
Determined to Be More Generous
I've determined to do that in my life. I've determined to be more generous than is natural for me because I want to mirror the generosity of the Lord. How about being willing to help people? How about listening to where they're struggling and ask yourself the question, "How can I gift them with assistance or help?"
Live a generous life and as you do that, you are picturing the generosity of your Lord. Listen, the average person out there has a negative media view of Christians. They think we're a bit crazy and part of our craziness is we think we're perfect and we judge everybody around us. Wouldn't it be beautiful to be known more by your generosity than your judgment?
