April 26, 2025 • 31 mins
A Generous God
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(00:00):
But that said, Chris is a friend of mine, has been a friend of mine.
Her husband's been a friend of mine.
Her husband is a pastor down in Tucson.
She works at the conference office.
So we got the better half this week.
Chris works in our trust services.
And interestingly, as I've gotten to know Chris, you know, usually you think the pastor gets all the gift of speaking.
(00:25):
But the first time I heard Chris speak, I was like, well, she could have filled the pulpit just as easy as Pastor Mike.
And so we've invited her to come up here and speak today.
And after getting to know her, I can also assure you she has important things to say about God.
Listen, and then this afternoon she's going to continue.
(00:47):
She's got about a one hour right after potluck that she's going to bring some information to us.
everybody is welcome to stay for that and then we also have a sign-up sheet because she's willing
to do individual appointments if you would like to talk about your estate's future so chris if i may
pray with you before you begin father in heaven we thank you for bringing chris to us today and we
(01:13):
thank you for the words that you're going to speak through her lord we pray that your spirit would
put those words on our hearts.
Help us to see your message today.
Help us to understand what you want us to know.
And God, please bless us this day in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
(01:39):
Thank you so much, Pastor Vince.
And it's really a pleasure to be with you guys today.
Beautiful day.
I drove up from Tucson, and traffic was light because it's a weekend,
and was just really enjoying listening to inspirational music
and looking forward to our time together.
(01:59):
I wanted to start by telling you about something
that is actually very, very important and beautiful for me,
and that is the fact that every Monday night I get on a Zoom call,
And I have a Bible study with three or four other ladies who are actually in two different places other than where I am and not in this country.
(02:23):
And we have actually been doing this for five years, ever since the beginning of COVID.
It started, as you can imagine, with COVID because everyone was just a little bit freaked out.
And these were friends of mine from another church that we pastored a number of years ago.
And one of them suggested, well, hey, we can get together on Zoom.
(02:47):
Now that's a thing.
And we can have some time together.
So this is how we have formatted our time together for these last five years.
First of all, if you have, I didn't bring my phone up here with me,
but if you have on your phone the Bible app from YouVersion,
if you haven't used that, I suggest if you have a smartphone that you do
(03:09):
because it is just filled with really, really helpful things.
and one of the things
excuse me
one of the things is Bible plans
and they have probably thousands of Bible plans
by all different kinds of speakers and writers
people you've heard of I'm sure
and they run anywhere from like three days
to three weeks depending
(03:31):
and you can look up by different subjects and so on
so this is what we've been doing
we have taken turns to pick a Bible plan
that we will all study during the week
And the way it's set up, you can read the Bible plan, a devotional and Bible verses every day.
And if you do it with friends, you can actually comment and they can see it.
(03:52):
So we've been doing that as our time together.
And then on Mondays during our Zoom time, we will discuss the Bible plan.
Of course, we will catch up on what's going on in each other's lives.
And we will pray together.
So our group is very diverse.
We have different ethnicities.
We have different generations, and we all have very different backgrounds.
(04:16):
And we have all gone through very serious issues in these last five years, particularly.
One of the ladies in the group is on her 10th year since being diagnosed with double ovarian cancer.
So if you know anything about that, being in year 10 is a pretty amazing thing.
(04:38):
And so it's not a curable disease, and so she lives with that over, you know,
hanging over her head and over her family all the time.
Another one of our ladies is in her 80s.
She lost her husband during those last five years.
(04:59):
She has been disabled for many, many years,
and just in the last year she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
she's also very dependent on other people you know doesn't drive and so on and so forth
and one of our group who was a runner and that was kind of her life was in a very serious hiking
(05:20):
accident where she fell in and just absolutely shattered her ankle and had to be carried by the
rescue crew about a mile and a half up a slope to get her out of there and she spent the last
couple of years in rehab, physical therapy, just trying to be able to walk normally, but probably
will never be able to run. Why am I telling you about this group and all of these people?
(05:46):
Because today I'm going to talk about the generous God. And when we think of God's generosity,
we almost always think about material things. We think, you know, if somebody's generous,
They're giving away money or supplies or material objects.
And we think about material things, either what we have or we wish we had.
(06:10):
We also, especially when someone like me from the plan giving and trust services department shows up,
think, and this is maybe uncomfortably, about how much of our material goods we should be giving back to God.
And that's always, you know, kind of a wrestling thought in our minds.
But I wanted to point out that I treasure this group of ladies
because of the generosity involved in this group
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that has nothing to do with material goods.
They have shown me and they have given me over these five years,
five last years, their time,
because that is a pretty big commitment of time,
their encouragement, their listening, nonjudgmental attitudes,
their advice, their perseverance and sticking with it for this long,
(06:56):
their prayers. There's so much that I have received from this group that has come from a generous
spirit. And each one of us, as we have been growing in this group, have also begun to learn
how we can be generous in our world, no matter what it looks like. My 83-year-old friend who's
(07:18):
disabled and who just lost her husband, she lives with her daughter. And her daughter, as part of
what she's been doing is has been a foster parent and has now opened her home to a little girl I
think she's six years old who is an indigenous girl who was taken away from her mother because
she was so poorly taken care of that she was covered in lice and bed bugs bed bug bites
(07:46):
and she had to go into the hospital and get iron transfusions because
all those bites had taken so much out of her. That is the horrible situation this little girl
was living in. And she's come to live with my friend's family and in her house.
And all she can say is, can I stay with you forever? She has just found a love and acceptance
(08:08):
that she's never, ever had before. And my friend, who could be annoyed at the childish noise or the
work or the attention being paid to the girl instead of herself. Instead, she has just shown
her so much love. She plays with her. She sings to her. She spends time with her, and she has shown
her the true love of a grandparent. My friend with ovarian cancer, although she was forced to retire
(08:35):
from the job she loved early because of her diagnosis, she spends her days contacting friends
and family who she prays with and does Bible studies with.
And despite her terminal prognosis, she lives her life with positivity and hope, which is
what I credit with the fact that she's been doing this for 10 years.
She has a blessing in her neighborhood.
(08:57):
She makes it a point to find her neighbors and to do things to be helpful to them.
And she's been a blessing to me as well as my prayer partner for the last 10 years.
These people are just an example of the blessings and the generosity that we can have in our lives
(09:18):
when we have the Spirit of God within us.
And so our text today was from Psalm 23, everyone's favorite, everyone knows it.
But I want you to dig down a little bit deeper into it today and see if we can find some more insights.
I'm going to read it really quickly since we only had just the one text for the scripture reading.
(09:39):
And I'm reading in the New Living version for those of you who are looking in another version.
Lord is my shepherd.
I have everything I need.
He lets me rest in green meadows.
He leads me beside peaceful streams.
He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.
Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid.
(10:03):
For you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
You welcome me as a guest, anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life,
(10:24):
and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
So, I brought my little show and tell prop here today.
I have a goblet.
Funny story about this.
My husband and I bought this many years ago
when we were first married
(10:44):
and we were at a glass blowing place
and we thought, oh, this would be so cool
to get glasses for our new home
at a special place like this.
But since then I found it in every department store
you can find.
It wasn't that special after all.
But it is meant to be done
to be used in special occasions.
(11:05):
So I'm going to be a little interactive here because I spent some years as a teacher.
So I'm going to ask you some questions particularly about the fifth verse of Psalm 23.
Some who, what, when, where types of things.
Okay, so David is writing the psalm.
We have the beautiful green pastures and the little flowing streams
(11:27):
and all of these things that are going on.
And then he kind of turns the mood and he starts talking about the valley of the shadow of death.
And then it's like he kind of turns the mood again,
and now he's talking about what?
What event is happening in verse 5 that we might need this for?
(11:49):
A table.
So depending on the version you're reading,
it will be translated in different ways.
My version says a feast.
So that word kind of jumped out at me, and I was like,
we're having a feast?
What is going on here?
So where is this feast actually taking place?
(12:11):
I couldn't hear all those people talking at once,
but I'm sure someone had the right answer.
So it's in the valley of the shadow of death.
That's what just the verse before he's talking about,
walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
And then now all of a sudden we've got a feast going on.
And who is present at this feast?
(12:33):
Your enemies, absolutely.
They are not sitting at the table from what I can presume,
but they are lurking, causing trouble all around.
But besides you at the table, who else is at the table?
God, yeah.
Because he says, you prepare me a table.
So he's speaking to someone else.
(12:55):
So you're sitting, imagine this, sitting at a feasting table.
And when I think feast, I think a lot of food.
That's a feast, right?
It's like a potluck on steroids.
So you got every kind of good food you could imagine,
and you've got good drink, and you've got good fellowship,
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and you're not worrying about anything, right?
Unless maybe you're in the kitchen.
But if not, you know, you're sitting at this feast,
and you're enjoying yourself, you're enjoying your friends,
you're enjoying the conversation.
But outside of this small table, or however big the feasting table is,
you've got enemies lined up.
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And they are lurking there in the presence of this feast.
And I started kind of imagining this and thinking about this,
and why would God put this metaphor in here through David
about this feast in the presence of enemies?
And one of the things that is part of this feast is this cup.
(14:03):
And as you will see in verse 5, what is happening with the cup?
It's overflowing, okay?
So, you know, we talk sometimes about, do you see the cup as half full?
Do you see the cup as half empty?
But this cup is overflowing.
So there's no worries about how much you're going to have to drink
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because there's plenty there.
David is painting a picture of someone relaxing at a feast
in front of their enemies with their cup running over
with the blessings of God.
They are not afraid.
They've just been told.
Even when they walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
they won't be afraid because God is there protecting them
(14:47):
and they can feast and not worry about the enemies
that are gathered around.
And I want you to imagine wherever you are,
and that could be the ER, urgent care,
that could be in a hospital bed,
like we talked about this friend member who is right now.
(15:08):
It could be in the workplace, school, if that's your thing.
I want you to imagine if you get into a fearful situation,
that feast table.
Think about that.
The feast table, you and God, with every blessing he can give you to fill your soul,
(15:29):
is right in the middle of your worst nightmare.
That's what he's saying here.
We're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and our enemies are all around.
But God isn't worried.
He brings out a table, he throws on the tablecloth, brings out all this food, and he sits down.
And without a worry, he's having a special time with you.
(15:54):
so I want to ask you one more question here
why is the cup overflowing
sorry
it never becomes empty
but why would God want the cup to overflow
so you can pass it on
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that's right it's not just about you
even though this wonderful time with God
he is focusing on you
he brings us blessings because we have a responsibility to share them let me give you
an old testament example here put this down before i drop it there we go so this is an elisha story
you know the prophet who came after elijah was elisha and he's come to come someone comes to him
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for help and this is a widow of one of the other prophets in israel at the time and he has died the
prophet and left her with two young sons and sounds like debts. So having been in a ministerial
family for 40 years, you can understand that she was not a wealthy person. And she has two young
sons. And if you know anything at all about the culture of that time, women didn't have any status
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except through husbands, fathers, or children. So she no longer has anyone to give her status in the
community or legal status most likely. And so what is happening is her creditors have come and said,
well, you have no assets except your children. And so they're prepared to take her children away from
(17:32):
her to satisfy the debt. And she has no say in the matter. She isn't the legal guardian.
She is just beneath them and whatever they say, whatever their business demands, they can do it.
So she's desperate, as you can imagine, desperate for help.
And she comes to Elisha and she says, please, my beautiful, wonderful sons,
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my whole life is about to be taken from me.
Can you help?
So Elisha asks her one question.
Remember what that was?
What do you have?
What do you have?
And all she said, and notice her wording, just a jar of oil.
I don't know if it was half full or half empty.
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but she had a jar of oil
and she says just a jar of oil
that's it
and did Elijah say
or Elisha sorry say
I'm sorry you don't have anything to work with
your case is hopeless
he did not
so he gives her a task
he says borrow as many containers as you can
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so she sends her sons out
and she runs to the neighbors
and they line up all these containers
and then he's like pour the oil
and probably most of you know this story.
So she pours into one jar, and it fills up,
and then she pours into the next jar, and it fills up,
and she's like, this jug isn't that big.
Something weird is going on, and she keeps going and going and going
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until the very last jar that she has.
When it's full, oil runs out.
And she is instructed then to sell the oil, pay off the debts,
and live happily with her sons.
this is 2nd Kings 4 1-7 if anyone wants to look it up
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so the widow had a part in this story
what was her part
yeah she had a choice to obey or she could have argued and said
that's ridiculous this isn't going to help maybe she did and we just didn't hear
a recording of it but she does what she was tasked
to do she gathers the containers she pours the oil
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she cooperates with the God of the universe and what has God done in this story?
So God has kept his word and he has given her his overflowing grace to save them and we learn a lot
about God's character in this story because he is the creator and we sometimes gloss over that
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but he is the creator and that means his supply is endless. If he runs out of anything, guess what?
He can just make more. So you never have to worry with the God of the universe that you're going to
fall short. Now sometimes it feels like that to us, I know, but we have a God with infinite supply
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and that means we don't have to hoard things. We don't have to be worried in times when things are
not as affluent as others. I know that, you know, in the world today, there's a lot of fear, there's a
lot of uncertainty about the future. And I know I've had to ask myself this question, does it make me
want to hold tighter to what I have when things are uncertain or resources are more scarce?
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We do. We want to protect ourselves. It's definitely part of our human nature. I like to think that the
woman who had borrowed all these containers when she returned them she returned them with a little
bit of oil in it just like when somebody gives you a little baked goods you try to send something
back with them in the same pan because blessings are to be shared and she saw the unlimited gift
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of a generous God in her life and I'm sure that whatever she could do she would use that ability
to share with others. So when we think about God and God's character, God defines himself in the
Bible as love. God is love. On my way up here, I passed a big billboard that said love is, and then
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it was some very hardcore alcoholic drink. I was thinking, really? Is that what love is? But in the
Bible, it says God is love. I was thinking about this a while back, and I was like, well, we all
know about agape love we've heard about that probably all our lives but that is actually the
Greek word or one of the Greek words for love so I was like well what is the Hebrew word for love
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and so I looked it up and it's ahava and that means to have affectionate be intimate crave or
have an appetite for but Hebrew is an interesting language and you can kind of keep breaking it down
even more to its roots and so the root word of ahava is ahav and that is an action word
It's a verb basically, and it means to give or I give.
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And I thought about that for a while, and I was like,
so when God says he is love, what he's saying is his very essence
that makes up his character is the God of giving.
That is who he is.
That is how the universe runs.
That is his economy.
If you look at anything at our economy, I don't think giving is the big first word
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put up there. But in God's economy, he gives. And if you look at nature, you see, you know,
I have a beautiful amaryllis that I got at Christmas, one of these waxed amaryllises.
And it came up and it did four gorgeous blooms. And then those died off and it came up and did
four more. And I actually said, I thank you for your service. Because it was so beautiful. I would
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go over and I would talk to it and I'd say thank you. You know this little root bulb thing that
has nothing gorgeous about it just pops up the most beautiful things. Why? What is it getting
out of it? Nothing in my house and maybe if it was outside it could spread its seeds and I you know
living here in the desert we have cactus and they're not particularly attractive but this time
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of year suddenly they've got the most beautiful blooms that could rival any rose bush. It's just
amazing what you see in nature, the giving and the beauty that is built into what God has created for
us. Jesus describes the character of God in our also well-known text of John 3.16, which says,
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God loved the world so much that he gave, gave his most precious possession, which was basically
himself, his son, to save everyone, the whole entire world. So here's a New Testament story
that has to do with this nature of God and the generous God. And this is a story that Jesus told
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in Matthew 25. It's part of the end time parables when the disciples were asking him about the end
time. So he gave several parables that were about the end time. One we all know is the 10 virgins
story. There's a sheep and the goats. But in the midst of these two stories is the story of the
talents. Now the word talent is a little confusing here because it's not meant to talk about our
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talents like playing the piano. It's mostly talking about money and that was a word they used for it.
But it also has crossover appeal into actually talking about our skills and our gifts.
So you know the story, but just to recap really quickly,
the master gives three servants a varying amount of money to use for capital investment.
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And he's going to be going on a trip,
and he wants them to be running his business and making him money while he's gone.
So the first one, he gives five talents, or some other versions.
I think it's a little different.
The story is told more than once.
Five talents, and the guy goes out and does what with it?
Doubles it.
So that's 100% gain.
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I mean, that's pretty good.
This one with two talents does what with it?
He doubles it.
So once again, he may have started with less,
but he did exactly the same thing as the first guy.
And then one of the servants is given one talent,
and what does he do with it?
He buries it, does nothing with it.
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And so when the master comes back,
he's understandably annoyed with this servant who's buried it
because he says you could at least put it in the bank and got me some interest,
but I've gotten nothing back on my investment with you.
And this is something my husband has pulled out in some of his sermons,
and it really is an interesting point.
(26:15):
This isn't a guy, I always thought he was just cautious.
You know, like I would be scared, like maybe I would do wrong investment.
I wouldn't perform well enough, and so he's cautious,
and so he just hides it so he won't lose it.
But when you really look into this, that's not really what's happening here.
When he is kind of scolded by the master, this is his response.
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He says, I know you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow.
And I'll just skip over here.
And then he says, I was afraid and went and had your talent.
That's some pretty serious poor understanding of who his master is and of what his master's character is.
This servant does not want to be part of the master's economy.
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He does not want to contribute to it.
He didn't even try.
He is afraid of the master.
He doesn't understand him so much so that he's actually subversive in his actions towards the master.
He's not just kind of lazy or absent-minded or so on.
He deliberately chooses not to invest in his master's kingdom and in his master's economy.
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and by failing to invest and utilize this generous gift because it was all a gift he didn't have that
one talent to begin with he did not use that gift he'd been given he is actually working against the
master and his master's business and his master's plans so coming back around to the generous god
god is generous with all of us i know it's easy to compare sometimes and say i don't have this or
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don't that I can't sing like we heard this morning or whatever else it is but we have all been given
some gifts by God all of us have been given some gifts no matter what our situation is
and I gave you the examples of my friends who are dealing with some pretty serious stuff in their
life there is still something that we can use like the talent for God's glory and that is the
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character of God and if we are made in the image of God then that is what we should be doing as well
so we demonstrate we are his people when we love and we love generously whether that is through
material gifts or through all the other blessings and attributes that God has given us have you
shared forgiveness with someone it's been given to you have you shared grace when someone messes up
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it's been given to you have you shared your time your muscles your experience your skills your
smile all of these things every single one of you whether you're in a hospital bed or not
which hopefully doesn't happen to many of us very often you still have something to give
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we were created to be the recipients of God's generosity in order to share that generosity
with the world sometimes I see these signs that say um blessed or I'm blessed and that's great
but it doesn't stop there God's blessings come to us just like the overflowing cup it overflows
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because it's not supposed to stop with us.
It's supposed to continue on
to whomever we meet in whatever situation.
That's what I appreciate about my small group.
As we have studied and prayed together,
we have chosen to share with the group
our hopes and dreams, failures, attitude,
encouragement, questions, and desires.
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We have thrown all of our talents into the mix
for the benefit of each other
and also the world in which we interact.
You won't be diminished by doing so.
You will not be diminished by giving away from the overflowing cup.
Worship of the Creator.
God provides us with life.
We have what we need and more.
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All that we have is his.
All that we have has been a gift in the first place.
We can spend our lives generously in service to God
and to other people without fear
because we are tapping into the infinite.
We're never going to run out, even if we share,
because God is the God of infinite, endless possibilities.
You can lift your overflowing cup in the face of your enemies
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and say, God has provided.
I will share what he has given me.
I will not be afraid.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, when we think about you,
we have a lot of different emotions and thoughts,
a lot of them based on our upbringing.
But you want us to understand who you are as a God of love,
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that your whole nature is to give and to bless
and to care for one another,
and you've asked the same for us.
And as we go on into this week,
I pray that you will help us to see opportunities
when we can share whatever it is that we have to share,
whether it's a smile or a good attitude
or something else that you have provided us with
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so that we can work in cooperation with you.
Thank you that you shared the greatest gift of all, Jesus,
and that he has risen and he is with you in heaven,
and he is also in our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We thank you, Jesus. Amen.
But that said, Chris is a friend of mine, has been a friend of mine.
Her husband's been a friend of mine.
Her husband is a pastor down in Tucson.
She works at the conference office.
So we got the better half this week.
Chris works in our trust services.
And interestingly, as I've gotten to know Chris, you know, usually you think the pastor gets all the gift of speaking.
(00:25):
But the first time I heard Chris speak, I was like, well, she could have filled the pulpit just as easy as Pastor Mike.
And so we've invited her to come up here and speak today.
And after getting to know her, I can also assure you she has important things to say about God.
Listen, and then this afternoon she's going to continue.
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She's got about a one hour right after potluck that she's going to bring some information to us.
everybody is welcome to stay for that and then we also have a sign-up sheet because she's willing
to do individual appointments if you would like to talk about your estate's future so chris if i may
pray with you before you begin father in heaven we thank you for bringing chris to us today and we
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thank you for the words that you're going to speak through her lord we pray that your spirit would
put those words on our hearts.
Help us to see your message today.
Help us to understand what you want us to know.
And God, please bless us this day in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen.
(01:39):
Thank you so much, Pastor Vince.
And it's really a pleasure to be with you guys today.
Beautiful day.
I drove up from Tucson, and traffic was light because it's a weekend,
and was just really enjoying listening to inspirational music
and looking forward to our time together.
(01:59):
I wanted to start by telling you about something
that is actually very, very important and beautiful for me,
and that is the fact that every Monday night I get on a Zoom call,
And I have a Bible study with three or four other ladies who are actually in two different places other than where I am and not in this country.
(02:23):
And we have actually been doing this for five years, ever since the beginning of COVID.
It started, as you can imagine, with COVID because everyone was just a little bit freaked out.
And these were friends of mine from another church that we pastored a number of years ago.
And one of them suggested, well, hey, we can get together on Zoom.
(02:47):
Now that's a thing.
And we can have some time together.
So this is how we have formatted our time together for these last five years.
First of all, if you have, I didn't bring my phone up here with me,
but if you have on your phone the Bible app from YouVersion,
if you haven't used that, I suggest if you have a smartphone that you do
(03:09):
because it is just filled with really, really helpful things.
and one of the things
excuse me
one of the things is Bible plans
and they have probably thousands of Bible plans
by all different kinds of speakers and writers
people you've heard of I'm sure
and they run anywhere from like three days
to three weeks depending
(03:31):
and you can look up by different subjects and so on
so this is what we've been doing
we have taken turns to pick a Bible plan
that we will all study during the week
And the way it's set up, you can read the Bible plan, a devotional and Bible verses every day.
And if you do it with friends, you can actually comment and they can see it.
(03:52):
So we've been doing that as our time together.
And then on Mondays during our Zoom time, we will discuss the Bible plan.
Of course, we will catch up on what's going on in each other's lives.
And we will pray together.
So our group is very diverse.
We have different ethnicities.
We have different generations, and we all have very different backgrounds.
(04:16):
And we have all gone through very serious issues in these last five years, particularly.
One of the ladies in the group is on her 10th year since being diagnosed with double ovarian cancer.
So if you know anything about that, being in year 10 is a pretty amazing thing.
(04:38):
And so it's not a curable disease, and so she lives with that over, you know,
hanging over her head and over her family all the time.
Another one of our ladies is in her 80s.
She lost her husband during those last five years.
(04:59):
She has been disabled for many, many years,
and just in the last year she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.
she's also very dependent on other people you know doesn't drive and so on and so forth
and one of our group who was a runner and that was kind of her life was in a very serious hiking
(05:20):
accident where she fell in and just absolutely shattered her ankle and had to be carried by the
rescue crew about a mile and a half up a slope to get her out of there and she spent the last
couple of years in rehab, physical therapy, just trying to be able to walk normally, but probably
will never be able to run. Why am I telling you about this group and all of these people?
(05:46):
Because today I'm going to talk about the generous God. And when we think of God's generosity,
we almost always think about material things. We think, you know, if somebody's generous,
They're giving away money or supplies or material objects.
And we think about material things, either what we have or we wish we had.
(06:10):
We also, especially when someone like me from the plan giving and trust services department shows up,
think, and this is maybe uncomfortably, about how much of our material goods we should be giving back to God.
And that's always, you know, kind of a wrestling thought in our minds.
But I wanted to point out that I treasure this group of ladies
because of the generosity involved in this group
(06:34):
that has nothing to do with material goods.
They have shown me and they have given me over these five years,
five last years, their time,
because that is a pretty big commitment of time,
their encouragement, their listening, nonjudgmental attitudes,
their advice, their perseverance and sticking with it for this long,
(06:56):
their prayers. There's so much that I have received from this group that has come from a generous
spirit. And each one of us, as we have been growing in this group, have also begun to learn
how we can be generous in our world, no matter what it looks like. My 83-year-old friend who's
(07:18):
disabled and who just lost her husband, she lives with her daughter. And her daughter, as part of
what she's been doing is has been a foster parent and has now opened her home to a little girl I
think she's six years old who is an indigenous girl who was taken away from her mother because
she was so poorly taken care of that she was covered in lice and bed bugs bed bug bites
(07:46):
and she had to go into the hospital and get iron transfusions because
all those bites had taken so much out of her. That is the horrible situation this little girl
was living in. And she's come to live with my friend's family and in her house.
And all she can say is, can I stay with you forever? She has just found a love and acceptance
(08:08):
that she's never, ever had before. And my friend, who could be annoyed at the childish noise or the
work or the attention being paid to the girl instead of herself. Instead, she has just shown
her so much love. She plays with her. She sings to her. She spends time with her, and she has shown
her the true love of a grandparent. My friend with ovarian cancer, although she was forced to retire
(08:35):
from the job she loved early because of her diagnosis, she spends her days contacting friends
and family who she prays with and does Bible studies with.
And despite her terminal prognosis, she lives her life with positivity and hope, which is
what I credit with the fact that she's been doing this for 10 years.
She has a blessing in her neighborhood.
(08:57):
She makes it a point to find her neighbors and to do things to be helpful to them.
And she's been a blessing to me as well as my prayer partner for the last 10 years.
These people are just an example of the blessings and the generosity that we can have in our lives
(09:18):
when we have the Spirit of God within us.
And so our text today was from Psalm 23, everyone's favorite, everyone knows it.
But I want you to dig down a little bit deeper into it today and see if we can find some more insights.
I'm going to read it really quickly since we only had just the one text for the scripture reading.
(09:39):
And I'm reading in the New Living version for those of you who are looking in another version.
Lord is my shepherd.
I have everything I need.
He lets me rest in green meadows.
He leads me beside peaceful streams.
He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.
Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid.
(10:03):
For you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
You welcome me as a guest, anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life,
(10:24):
and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
So, I brought my little show and tell prop here today.
I have a goblet.
Funny story about this.
My husband and I bought this many years ago
when we were first married
(10:44):
and we were at a glass blowing place
and we thought, oh, this would be so cool
to get glasses for our new home
at a special place like this.
But since then I found it in every department store
you can find.
It wasn't that special after all.
But it is meant to be done
to be used in special occasions.
(11:05):
So I'm going to be a little interactive here because I spent some years as a teacher.
So I'm going to ask you some questions particularly about the fifth verse of Psalm 23.
Some who, what, when, where types of things.
Okay, so David is writing the psalm.
We have the beautiful green pastures and the little flowing streams
(11:27):
and all of these things that are going on.
And then he kind of turns the mood and he starts talking about the valley of the shadow of death.
And then it's like he kind of turns the mood again,
and now he's talking about what?
What event is happening in verse 5 that we might need this for?
(11:49):
A table.
So depending on the version you're reading,
it will be translated in different ways.
My version says a feast.
So that word kind of jumped out at me, and I was like,
we're having a feast?
What is going on here?
So where is this feast actually taking place?
(12:11):
I couldn't hear all those people talking at once,
but I'm sure someone had the right answer.
So it's in the valley of the shadow of death.
That's what just the verse before he's talking about,
walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
And then now all of a sudden we've got a feast going on.
And who is present at this feast?
(12:33):
Your enemies, absolutely.
They are not sitting at the table from what I can presume,
but they are lurking, causing trouble all around.
But besides you at the table, who else is at the table?
God, yeah.
Because he says, you prepare me a table.
So he's speaking to someone else.
(12:55):
So you're sitting, imagine this, sitting at a feasting table.
And when I think feast, I think a lot of food.
That's a feast, right?
It's like a potluck on steroids.
So you got every kind of good food you could imagine,
and you've got good drink, and you've got good fellowship,
(13:18):
and you're not worrying about anything, right?
Unless maybe you're in the kitchen.
But if not, you know, you're sitting at this feast,
and you're enjoying yourself, you're enjoying your friends,
you're enjoying the conversation.
But outside of this small table, or however big the feasting table is,
you've got enemies lined up.
(13:40):
And they are lurking there in the presence of this feast.
And I started kind of imagining this and thinking about this,
and why would God put this metaphor in here through David
about this feast in the presence of enemies?
And one of the things that is part of this feast is this cup.
(14:03):
And as you will see in verse 5, what is happening with the cup?
It's overflowing, okay?
So, you know, we talk sometimes about, do you see the cup as half full?
Do you see the cup as half empty?
But this cup is overflowing.
So there's no worries about how much you're going to have to drink
(14:25):
because there's plenty there.
David is painting a picture of someone relaxing at a feast
in front of their enemies with their cup running over
with the blessings of God.
They are not afraid.
They've just been told.
Even when they walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
they won't be afraid because God is there protecting them
(14:47):
and they can feast and not worry about the enemies
that are gathered around.
And I want you to imagine wherever you are,
and that could be the ER, urgent care,
that could be in a hospital bed,
like we talked about this friend member who is right now.
(15:08):
It could be in the workplace, school, if that's your thing.
I want you to imagine if you get into a fearful situation,
that feast table.
Think about that.
The feast table, you and God, with every blessing he can give you to fill your soul,
(15:29):
is right in the middle of your worst nightmare.
That's what he's saying here.
We're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and our enemies are all around.
But God isn't worried.
He brings out a table, he throws on the tablecloth, brings out all this food, and he sits down.
And without a worry, he's having a special time with you.
(15:54):
so I want to ask you one more question here
why is the cup overflowing
sorry
it never becomes empty
but why would God want the cup to overflow
so you can pass it on
(16:14):
that's right it's not just about you
even though this wonderful time with God
he is focusing on you
he brings us blessings because we have a responsibility to share them let me give you
an old testament example here put this down before i drop it there we go so this is an elisha story
you know the prophet who came after elijah was elisha and he's come to come someone comes to him
(16:42):
for help and this is a widow of one of the other prophets in israel at the time and he has died the
prophet and left her with two young sons and sounds like debts. So having been in a ministerial
family for 40 years, you can understand that she was not a wealthy person. And she has two young
sons. And if you know anything at all about the culture of that time, women didn't have any status
(17:09):
except through husbands, fathers, or children. So she no longer has anyone to give her status in the
community or legal status most likely. And so what is happening is her creditors have come and said,
well, you have no assets except your children. And so they're prepared to take her children away from
(17:32):
her to satisfy the debt. And she has no say in the matter. She isn't the legal guardian.
She is just beneath them and whatever they say, whatever their business demands, they can do it.
So she's desperate, as you can imagine, desperate for help.
And she comes to Elisha and she says, please, my beautiful, wonderful sons,
(17:52):
my whole life is about to be taken from me.
Can you help?
So Elisha asks her one question.
Remember what that was?
What do you have?
What do you have?
And all she said, and notice her wording, just a jar of oil.
I don't know if it was half full or half empty.
(18:14):
but she had a jar of oil
and she says just a jar of oil
that's it
and did Elijah say
or Elisha sorry say
I'm sorry you don't have anything to work with
your case is hopeless
he did not
so he gives her a task
he says borrow as many containers as you can
(18:36):
so she sends her sons out
and she runs to the neighbors
and they line up all these containers
and then he's like pour the oil
and probably most of you know this story.
So she pours into one jar, and it fills up,
and then she pours into the next jar, and it fills up,
and she's like, this jug isn't that big.
Something weird is going on, and she keeps going and going and going
(18:58):
until the very last jar that she has.
When it's full, oil runs out.
And she is instructed then to sell the oil, pay off the debts,
and live happily with her sons.
this is 2nd Kings 4 1-7 if anyone wants to look it up
(19:18):
so the widow had a part in this story
what was her part
yeah she had a choice to obey or she could have argued and said
that's ridiculous this isn't going to help maybe she did and we just didn't hear
a recording of it but she does what she was tasked
to do she gathers the containers she pours the oil
(19:42):
she cooperates with the God of the universe and what has God done in this story?
So God has kept his word and he has given her his overflowing grace to save them and we learn a lot
about God's character in this story because he is the creator and we sometimes gloss over that
(20:07):
but he is the creator and that means his supply is endless. If he runs out of anything, guess what?
He can just make more. So you never have to worry with the God of the universe that you're going to
fall short. Now sometimes it feels like that to us, I know, but we have a God with infinite supply
(20:29):
and that means we don't have to hoard things. We don't have to be worried in times when things are
not as affluent as others. I know that, you know, in the world today, there's a lot of fear, there's a
lot of uncertainty about the future. And I know I've had to ask myself this question, does it make me
want to hold tighter to what I have when things are uncertain or resources are more scarce?
(20:54):
We do. We want to protect ourselves. It's definitely part of our human nature. I like to think that the
woman who had borrowed all these containers when she returned them she returned them with a little
bit of oil in it just like when somebody gives you a little baked goods you try to send something
back with them in the same pan because blessings are to be shared and she saw the unlimited gift
(21:20):
of a generous God in her life and I'm sure that whatever she could do she would use that ability
to share with others. So when we think about God and God's character, God defines himself in the
Bible as love. God is love. On my way up here, I passed a big billboard that said love is, and then
(21:42):
it was some very hardcore alcoholic drink. I was thinking, really? Is that what love is? But in the
Bible, it says God is love. I was thinking about this a while back, and I was like, well, we all
know about agape love we've heard about that probably all our lives but that is actually the
Greek word or one of the Greek words for love so I was like well what is the Hebrew word for love
(22:05):
and so I looked it up and it's ahava and that means to have affectionate be intimate crave or
have an appetite for but Hebrew is an interesting language and you can kind of keep breaking it down
even more to its roots and so the root word of ahava is ahav and that is an action word
It's a verb basically, and it means to give or I give.
(22:30):
And I thought about that for a while, and I was like,
so when God says he is love, what he's saying is his very essence
that makes up his character is the God of giving.
That is who he is.
That is how the universe runs.
That is his economy.
If you look at anything at our economy, I don't think giving is the big first word
(22:54):
put up there. But in God's economy, he gives. And if you look at nature, you see, you know,
I have a beautiful amaryllis that I got at Christmas, one of these waxed amaryllises.
And it came up and it did four gorgeous blooms. And then those died off and it came up and did
four more. And I actually said, I thank you for your service. Because it was so beautiful. I would
(23:19):
go over and I would talk to it and I'd say thank you. You know this little root bulb thing that
has nothing gorgeous about it just pops up the most beautiful things. Why? What is it getting
out of it? Nothing in my house and maybe if it was outside it could spread its seeds and I you know
living here in the desert we have cactus and they're not particularly attractive but this time
(23:41):
of year suddenly they've got the most beautiful blooms that could rival any rose bush. It's just
amazing what you see in nature, the giving and the beauty that is built into what God has created for
us. Jesus describes the character of God in our also well-known text of John 3.16, which says,
(24:03):
God loved the world so much that he gave, gave his most precious possession, which was basically
himself, his son, to save everyone, the whole entire world. So here's a New Testament story
that has to do with this nature of God and the generous God. And this is a story that Jesus told
(24:27):
in Matthew 25. It's part of the end time parables when the disciples were asking him about the end
time. So he gave several parables that were about the end time. One we all know is the 10 virgins
story. There's a sheep and the goats. But in the midst of these two stories is the story of the
talents. Now the word talent is a little confusing here because it's not meant to talk about our
(24:51):
talents like playing the piano. It's mostly talking about money and that was a word they used for it.
But it also has crossover appeal into actually talking about our skills and our gifts.
So you know the story, but just to recap really quickly,
the master gives three servants a varying amount of money to use for capital investment.
(25:13):
And he's going to be going on a trip,
and he wants them to be running his business and making him money while he's gone.
So the first one, he gives five talents, or some other versions.
I think it's a little different.
The story is told more than once.
Five talents, and the guy goes out and does what with it?
Doubles it.
So that's 100% gain.
(25:34):
I mean, that's pretty good.
This one with two talents does what with it?
He doubles it.
So once again, he may have started with less,
but he did exactly the same thing as the first guy.
And then one of the servants is given one talent,
and what does he do with it?
He buries it, does nothing with it.
(25:54):
And so when the master comes back,
he's understandably annoyed with this servant who's buried it
because he says you could at least put it in the bank and got me some interest,
but I've gotten nothing back on my investment with you.
And this is something my husband has pulled out in some of his sermons,
and it really is an interesting point.
(26:15):
This isn't a guy, I always thought he was just cautious.
You know, like I would be scared, like maybe I would do wrong investment.
I wouldn't perform well enough, and so he's cautious,
and so he just hides it so he won't lose it.
But when you really look into this, that's not really what's happening here.
When he is kind of scolded by the master, this is his response.
(26:38):
He says, I know you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow.
And I'll just skip over here.
And then he says, I was afraid and went and had your talent.
That's some pretty serious poor understanding of who his master is and of what his master's character is.
This servant does not want to be part of the master's economy.
(27:02):
He does not want to contribute to it.
He didn't even try.
He is afraid of the master.
He doesn't understand him so much so that he's actually subversive in his actions towards the master.
He's not just kind of lazy or absent-minded or so on.
He deliberately chooses not to invest in his master's kingdom and in his master's economy.
(27:29):
and by failing to invest and utilize this generous gift because it was all a gift he didn't have that
one talent to begin with he did not use that gift he'd been given he is actually working against the
master and his master's business and his master's plans so coming back around to the generous god
god is generous with all of us i know it's easy to compare sometimes and say i don't have this or
(27:53):
don't that I can't sing like we heard this morning or whatever else it is but we have all been given
some gifts by God all of us have been given some gifts no matter what our situation is
and I gave you the examples of my friends who are dealing with some pretty serious stuff in their
life there is still something that we can use like the talent for God's glory and that is the
(28:18):
character of God and if we are made in the image of God then that is what we should be doing as well
so we demonstrate we are his people when we love and we love generously whether that is through
material gifts or through all the other blessings and attributes that God has given us have you
shared forgiveness with someone it's been given to you have you shared grace when someone messes up
(28:45):
it's been given to you have you shared your time your muscles your experience your skills your
smile all of these things every single one of you whether you're in a hospital bed or not
which hopefully doesn't happen to many of us very often you still have something to give
(29:08):
we were created to be the recipients of God's generosity in order to share that generosity
with the world sometimes I see these signs that say um blessed or I'm blessed and that's great
but it doesn't stop there God's blessings come to us just like the overflowing cup it overflows
(29:33):
because it's not supposed to stop with us.
It's supposed to continue on
to whomever we meet in whatever situation.
That's what I appreciate about my small group.
As we have studied and prayed together,
we have chosen to share with the group
our hopes and dreams, failures, attitude,
encouragement, questions, and desires.
(29:53):
We have thrown all of our talents into the mix
for the benefit of each other
and also the world in which we interact.
You won't be diminished by doing so.
You will not be diminished by giving away from the overflowing cup.
Worship of the Creator.
God provides us with life.
We have what we need and more.
(30:15):
All that we have is his.
All that we have has been a gift in the first place.
We can spend our lives generously in service to God
and to other people without fear
because we are tapping into the infinite.
We're never going to run out, even if we share,
because God is the God of infinite, endless possibilities.
You can lift your overflowing cup in the face of your enemies
(30:39):
and say, God has provided.
I will share what he has given me.
I will not be afraid.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, when we think about you,
we have a lot of different emotions and thoughts,
a lot of them based on our upbringing.
But you want us to understand who you are as a God of love,
(31:02):
that your whole nature is to give and to bless
and to care for one another,
and you've asked the same for us.
And as we go on into this week,
I pray that you will help us to see opportunities
when we can share whatever it is that we have to share,
whether it's a smile or a good attitude
or something else that you have provided us with
(31:23):
so that we can work in cooperation with you.
Thank you that you shared the greatest gift of all, Jesus,
and that he has risen and he is with you in heaven,
and he is also in our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We thank you, Jesus. Amen.
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