Show notes
“Living Generously” -- sermon by Caleb CampbellDesert Springs Bible Church, August 29, 2021 I am so thankful to our Worship and Arts team for the work that they put in each week. Right now, our Worship and Arts Pastor Danny is on sabbatical, and many of the team members have stepped up over the last few weeks to lead us. They practice during the week. They do a bunch of planning and prayer, just to be able to lead us in worship. Can we say thank you, too? So, we're in the middle of a series called Groundwork, in which we're looking at some of the core values of our church family and exploring the texts that those are derived from. On your way in, and you should have received a handout that looks like this. If you do not have a handout, just raise up your hands, throw them up in the air, and wave them around like you just don't care. Then one of our hosts will get that handout to you. One of the reasons why we are printing it out each week for y'all is so you can mark it up and make notes. You can see that I actually did all my sermon prep on this one, and so I'm going to preach from that, as well as a couple other notes. Our hope is that for those of you who are part of the DSBC family is that you would have a deeper understanding of how it is that we're wired and where that comes from -- where our core values come from. Today, we're going to be in Ephesians Chapter 4 verses one through six. For those of you who are watching online, we have our digital version of our study guide available. If you go to DSBC dot church, on the front page of the website you'll see a Groundwork link. There's a button you can press there to find all five of our study guides. Today we're on the third one, and we are looking at the one with the heart on it. It reads as follows: “As a church family, we seek to live generously, using our time, skills and resources to bless and serve our community and to live as the hands and feet of Jesus.” Now for many of us, when we hear the word generosity, we in kind of instinctively think that we're talking about what? Money. And I think that's a symptom of the fact that we are drenched in an individualistic, consumer-based, capitalistic culture. When we hear generosity, we immediately just go to money. In fact, for many of us are clenching up right now, because we're afraid that all the pastor wants is our … And that's true. That's very true. I want your money. I want it so bad I can taste it. I’m not at all adverse to accepting your money. Now, here's one of the beautiful things about Desert Springs and the way that Jesus has wired this church. We have a leadership team. We have a board of directors and a Council of servant leaders who oversee me and make sure that I don't use this stage or my position to manipulate people or guilt people into giving me their money. Because there's a highly likelihood that I would probably fall into that, because I really do think I would spend your money better than you do. What we're going to do today is we're actually we're not going to talk about generosity as it's expressed through the giving of financial resources, primarily. What we're going to look at is something more that's actually more global, as we think about generosity and also something that ends up coming up more in Scripture -- at least in my reading. Let's see if we can put on our global Christian hats as we read through this text and even think through what this might look like in our day-to-day lives. Before I read the text, I want to ask you a question that was posed to me at a a global leadership summit, which is a leadership-development summit that some of our team participated in with just a few weeks ago. Albert Tate, who's a pastor and author, asked this question, and it shook me to the core: What if 2020 was the lesson, and now is the test? What if 2020 and all of its trappings -- all of the chaos, all of the difficulty, all of the gnarly stuff that we've frankly continued to go through to this day -- what if all of that is the lesson, not the test? See, for many of us, we look at these massive shifts in culture, … we look at these massive events that have happened and we say, “This is difficulty. This is a trial. This is a tribulation. This is a test.” But what if God used the last season not as the test, but what if it was the lesson, and the test is yet to come? What if how we choose to live now is actually the test? This is something I've been thinking about since that time -- and I think it ties to our text today because the text that we're going to read through today in Ephesians Chapter 4 talks about our lives and how we're choosing to live our day-to-day lives as it relates to living generously. And I believe that in this text, we will find that living generously mirrors God. That generosity is an expression of grace, and that generosity grows us. We're going to go through this quickly because, for those who can see in the room here, we have our campuses set up a little bit differently today. Because after my remarks, we're actually going to break out. There are tables all around in our worship center and in our lobby that represent some of the different ministries here at DSBC. Some of our ministry team members will be staffing those tables after this, and they are ready to provide you with information on the different ministry opportunities that are here. There's also information on ministry opportunities that exist outside of our church family with some of our partner ministries that will be in the lobby. I'll give you some more instruction on that as we move forward. For those of you who are joining us online, you can simply click on the “Serve” button at the top of the online platform, and there's information on many of the different teams that are available to serve on here -- some of which are in person, and some of which are available to you to do from your home online, as well. So, Ephesians 4 verses one through 16. I'm going to go through the verses, and we're just going to notice some different things about the text. Then we will take it home to see how this might be used of God to shape us, even today. In this moment, Ephesians 4 one through 16: “Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received … *** Time out. What's the verb he's urging? What's the word? Walk. So, right off the bat, we see that to follow Jesus, to follow the Jesus way, requires action. It requires walking. It's not just something that we ponder. It's not just something that we pray over. It's also something that we put into practice with our walk. We're going to walk the way worthy of the calling that you have received. *** Let’s move on to Verse 2: “With all humility, gentleness with patience, bearing with one another, making every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace … *** *** Time out. If you've been with us for the last couple of weeks, this may start sounding really familiar to you -- this call to unity, to be long-suffering with one another, to be gracious with one another. In fact, a couple weeks ago we had a table up here with a bunch of hats on it, and we talked about how we're a bunch of misfits from all different backgrounds and walks of life and perspectives who are bound together by the love and grace of God made known to us through Jesus. Last week, we talked about how the job of the leadership here is not to indoctrinate you and to convince you to just say whatever we think you should say. Our role is to equip you, by the power of the Spirit, to discern how the Spirit of God is convicting you, based on your understanding as we read collectively as a church family. Then when we think about putting that into practice, which is what we're doing today, we recognize that as we practice our faith, as we walk our faith, as we walk our faith with a bunch of people who are different than us, we may bump into each other over time. Any of this happen to y'all? Which is why you see these consistent calls for unity – the unity of the spirit, verse three, and the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.*** Verses four through six: “There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called to one hope at your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all who is through all and in all.” Did you catch the one language just over and over and over again? There's this really interesting thing that Jesus prayed for His church. He prayed that we would be as one, just as the Triune God is one. Now check this out in verse 7: “Now Grace was given … *** *** Time out. What was given? Grace. Now for many of us, that word has become kind of oddly religious. It's got all these religious overtones, but for the original author, whose name was Paul, the original language is caring. Grace is just a gift. It's the gift of God. The gift was given to us, so when we think about grace, we recognize that it's a gift from God. *** “Now the gift was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” So let me ask you this question. Is God a gracious gift giver? OK, good, you're following this. So, when so generosity mirrors God’s character -- when we're generous to each other, when we give gifts to each other -- it is mirroring the character and the actions of God. You all with me so far? To give gifts -- and I don't just mean like presents, I mean to give generously of our time, our energy, our resources -- is to mirror the character of God. Verse 7-8: “For now Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says, ‘When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to His people.’” It says, “when He ascended on high.” Now this sounds weird. When He ascended on high, He took the captive and gave gifts to His people. Now two things. Doesn't that sound weird? Yeah, that sounds weird. OK, here's what's going on. Do you know when you're at the club -- I've seen you guys at the club, right? -- You guys know when you're at the club, and DJ Funky Fresh has some sweet beats -- “bootcha, bootcha.” (Rhythmic sounds) You guys with me? OK, so maybe I'm not connecting. OK, so when you're at the club -- actually you guys should all go to the club for little Biblical study -- so you're at the club, DJ Funky Fresh is up there, and then every now and again they'll just have kind of like some, you, know “bootcha, bootcha bootcha.” (Musical beats). And then they will play a clip from a song that's popular to what the DJ thinks everyone in the room is gonna remember or recognize, right? And those of us who like good music are gonna think, “I know what that is.” Did they play the whole Aerosmith song? No, the DJ just sampled the Aerosmith song in order to queue up into your mind the entirety of Aerosmith catalog. And you're doing all this in a brief amount of time with just a few words. Now notice what the author does -- the author, DJ Funky Fresh Paul, is going to sample or bring in lyrics from Psalm 68 and his intention, I believe, is to bring in the full weight of that psalm, which is speaking to the generosity and the power of God. You guys with me so far? OK, so a lot of times when you read your Bible -- which you should do a lot, and definitely with a bunch of people who are not like you so you can argue about it and actually find maturity. When you do that, you will notice that the New Testament authors are always doing this. They're doing it more than DJ Funky Fresh down at the club. All the time, they're pulling in previous Scripture -- which is why I think you should read the entire Bible all the time, 1000 times and argue about it until you're dead so that you can be wise, OK? Where are we? Verse nine, OK. Now, this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that “He also descended to the lower parts of the Earth?” Is that weird? Yeah, I think it's weird. Verse 10, “He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above the heavens, so that He might fill all things.” I think what the author is doing here, I think the author is just riffing on and giving you kind of an illustrated version of the death, the incarnation, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus -- that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, took on flesh and descended and even descended into the grave, and then did what on Easter? Ascended. Do you see what the author is doing here? He's kind of giving you a visual illustration of what Jesus did. We're going to talk about the good gifts of God and how God has given even himself, that he's descended and then ascended because he's powerful, which ties to Psalm 68. Verse 11: “And He himself gave …” Here's that giving language again. “He himself gave some as apostles, and some asprophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.” So, these are different roles, at least in the author's view. These are different roles within a local church or a local church community within a local city or region. And He says God gives these people -- He gives them as gifts to each other. So, I would just want to press pause here. If you're part of DSBC, you're a gift of God to the other people here. I know this will sound weird, but we’ll get over it. We are not passive participants. This is not a consumeristic enterprise, right? I'm not a performer and in you the audience. We're gifts given to each other. Have you ever recognized the fact that God has given the other people a part of your church family as a gift to you? Let me let me lean in on it, especially the ones who frustrate you. That's a gift. Let's keep going. It got really quiet. Why did God give as a gift these different leaders? Look at verse 12: “ ... to equipthe saints for the work of service, to building up of the body of Christ.” Equip for what? The work of ministry, the work of service, right? Notice again the physical language. We're going to walk according to our calling. The work of the ministry. We’re going to work and serve. God gave these leaders to equip the saints, verse 12, for the work of ministry -- to build up the body of Christ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ. Fullness …. *** OK, press pause. Number one, living generously mirrors the character of God. Two, generosity is an expression of God's grace. We are group. We are gifts to each other. Third, living generously grows us. *** Now, I get the question a lot in my field -- this may sound like a surprise to you, but sometimes maybe once or twice I wrestle with pride and arrogance. Thank you, Jeff, for being shocked. I appreciate your feigning surprise, and unfortunately, I think a lot of people in my position do, too. That's not a slam on them. It just kind of goes with the territory. One of my greatest temptations in my vocation is to view butts-on-seats as the marker to my health and validity. To put it another way, if the crowd is big, I feel big. If the crowd is small, how do I feel? Small. Does that sound like Jesus to you? It doesn't sound like Jesus to me, either, which is why I'm continually in a place of repentance for that. When I hear language about growing the church, my default temptation is to think that's right. “How do we get more butts-on-seats, so I can build my brand?” Do you think that's what the apostle Paul has in mind when He writes to the Ephesian church and talks about church growth? No,…
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