The Blueprint of Generosity

Good morning, we are in a series entitled, “The Generous life.” We are also starting up our community Groups… and it is still not too late.. it was such a blessing this last week to hear stories of thankfulness..... of God’s provision --- not just in the past but right in the present…

The Generous life comes from this idea that there are inputs and outputs in life… When Jesus commissioned his disciples he told them “freely they had received freely give.” The metaphor that we are using is that of a funnel of God blessing being poured out and we becoming the recipients of all that God has given… God’s Generosity is seen in Creation — and it’s also seen in his nature and attributes...

The Generous life has to be founded on this premise that God is Good.... Often in Africa pastors will start a sermon with the words God is Good all the time.... and the congregation would respond “and All the time God is Good.” Simple but true… Many of them had nothing… to be honest… yet they knew this truth...

Here is the thing... Regardless of how we feeling right now God is good... God is is always rooting for us…He has our best interests at heart… This is foundational…

If we have this thought that God is holding out on us or that he really does not care or love us… this is going to become a barrier to us in receiving all that God has for us…

James shows us the Goodness of God towards us.

James 1:17 ESV

17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

James is writing this letter to Christians who are experiencing terrible persecution. And it would be easy to imagine that during the midst of their fiery trial that they would question — God’s Goodness. James puts the record straight… He reminds them of the God’s Character… He says..

“Every good gift and Every perfect gift from Above” — . Everything that is beneficial for us and every Gift that is complete with out defect or blemish Comes God the Father - - In fact God loves to bestowing Good things on his Children…

What do we call ‘good’? Good health? Family? Firm and unfailing friendship? Freedom? The smile of a child? The singing of the birds? The thunderous crash of the waves? The majesty of the mountains? The warmth of a fire in the winter and the cool of the breeze in the summer? These all come from God—and thousands of other things, too!

If it is good, it comes from God!

Stotts commentary tells us… That God gives everything that could possibly be needed; he gives everything, holding nothing back. In giving, he is simply beneficent, for in its character everything he gives is good. And in giving, he is exactly appropriate to what is required: his gifts are perfect.

James in calling God ‘the Father of lights’, is taking about the realm of astronomy. This is a realm of constant variation. Stars vary in brilliance. The moon waxes and wanes. The sun rises and sets. It creates all kinds of shadows and sometimes is eclipsed. But what is commonplace in the realm of astronomy is never true of God. With him there is never any waxing or waning or any kind of eclipse. He is always the same.

And that means he is always good. God does not have days when he has more goodness than on other days. His goodness is always undiminished and unchanged.

Kent Hughes says,

‘God does not change like shifting shadows. God’s goodness is always at high noon.’ Kent Hughes

The enemy will come in tell you otherwise. He will tell you that God has less favour towards you today than he had for you yesterday. And it is your fault!

This morning we are looking at the Blue Print of Generosity..

A couple of weeks ago Pam and I had the opportunity to travel to Portland for the weekend… It was special because it was close Valentines… So our goal was to see and experience as much of Portland over the weekend... I downloaded this app called “Trip it.

To be honest I am not sure exactly how this happens but all your flights and accommodations come into one place — some how through cloud make there way into the app… Then from there you can literally map out your whole trip… — the modes of transport — Uber, bus or the Max rail.. it will give you cost comparisons and the time it will take to get you there.... you can search for Places you want to visit and basically program the app… Once that is done you literally just have to follow the Blueprint… We walked something like 26 miles and experience much of Portland… Our one Uber drive gave us the advice that you have to eat way through Portland… Their food is pretty incredible…

There is something about a Plan that keeps us on track…keeps us on task... The adage —Fail to plan is to plan to fail...

Well when it comes Creation there are basically two competing views we have the Biblical View and then Scientific view.... To be honest these views don’t really have to contradict each other… But the reality is that these two views stand directly opposed to each other… basically..

1. Science teaches us that the universe was created by the Big bang in the universe… then over billions of years through evolutionary process life slowly formed the universe as we know it today… Science teaches us a kind of accidental universe — It happened by chance that moves from — Chaos --- to order..

2. The biblical view sees an architect with a Blue print… As we look at creation… we see intelligence, order and design... There are definite rhythms we have 24 hours in Day… we have four distinct seasons - We have physical laws that keep everything in place… So we see a Blue Print..

Hebrews 11:3 NKJV

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

to be Framed or created (equipped) v. — to be created, furnished and prepared for a use or purpose. The plan of creation was ultimately to make know the invisible qualities of God known… made through the eternal Christ and for him.

Colossians 1:16 ESV

16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

— The plan of creation was to make known the Glory (sum of the attributes of God)… Calvin said it like this… Creation is the “Theatre of his Glory.”

In the Genesis we have narrative of Creation — we God’s goodness being revealed through out the record. Seven times in the course of Genesis 1 we see God declares that what God saw was Good.. then in Genesis 3 when God had finished Creating everything… He said it was very Good… We can say that God’s plan was utimately Good… and it is still is Good.. However, as we read on in Genesis..

We learn that this perfect world that God created was disrupted when Adam and Even — took of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of Evil and sin entered into our world…Things from that moment changed..

Romans 5 tells us what took place in that moment..

Romans 5:12 ESV

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Notice that sin did not begin with Adam, it merely entered into the human race through him. It had its beginning with Lucifer own disobedience… (Ez. 28:12–17).

Sin came into the world literally means to spread through…Sin literally came through the front door… and penetrated the entire human race… like a vapor permeating all of a house’s rooms…

Have you ever wondered why we all were impacted by Adam’s sin?

There are two views out there..

a. Federal Headship - this view says that Adam is representative of the human race.. Adam’s act of sin was representative of all people

b. The natural Headship view.. which recognizes that the entire human race was seminally or physically in Adam.

Pam shared this interesting article with me the other day … about the amazing facts about child birth… One of them is that all of a woman’s eggs that a mother has are already in place from the womb…mind blowing

When you think that fact --- it would mean that in Eve every living being… could potentially be in Eve.. Paul tells us that all of mankind (passed tense) sinned in Adam…

When Sin entered into the world . Not only was the human race impacted but creation itself - The first consequence that God tells Adam — that the earth itself was cursed…Everything in creation was impacted.

Romans 8:22 ESV

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

HOW DID THIS IMPACT THE BLUEPRINT? GOD’S PURPOSE?

Tim Keller Somes up Creation Story like this...

God made the universe in the beginning, kind of the way a clockmaker makes a clock, but God put himself into the clock, and humanity was the key cog.

If the universe was a clock, and you could open up the back, the way it was originally designed, there was humanity right in the center, meshing with God above and meshing with nature beneath. We were the stewards of the world, God’s stewards in nature. When we decided to when we decided we wanted to be owners, we wanted to be our own kings, we wanted to be our own masters, that was like a cog falling off of its axle down into all of the wheels below.

The moment we decided to be our own directors, what happened to the universe is exactly what would happen to a clock if that happened. That is, the universe began to smoke and grind and crack and splinter. There were coils and springs and levers flying off in every direction

Everything is decaying. Everything is in the process of falling apart. Everything is disintegrating. Everything is unraveling because that cog has fallen off of the axle, down into the bottom of the clock. Everything is groaning. Everything is crunching. Things aren’t working right. So disease and decay come in, injustice and oppression come in, and fear and guilt come in..

He promised not to let us die forever. He promised that someday he’d come back and he would set up his kingdom anew. He would put humanity back on the axle and he’d mesh with us again from above. When that happens, everything would be healed physically and socially and spiritually, in every way. Everything would come together again.

When we remember that the purpose of God’s Plan was always to Display his Glory --- So that he might be known…

What is amazing about The Blueprint of Creation and Salvation is that God went on with the Plan inspite of the fact that God knew we would mess things up... — .

T/S God’s Blue Print is a master Plan …

1.It’s a Plan unfolding towards Fulfillment.

In Theology they talk about Salvation History - It is framework or a way of understanding Scripture as the story of God’s ongoing redemptive work in history... It is how the Salvation story unfolds from the Old into the New Testament...

In Ephesian 3 Paul talks about God’s plan being made known…

Ephesians 3:8–11 ESV

8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Paul is talking about the inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s Salvation plan. This concept would have been foreign to the Jews who saw themselves as God’s chosen people… Paul tells them that God’s plan in Salvation is progressive.

- that was hidden but has now been made known… This was not something new … it was slowly being revealed...

The mystery is that Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promised in Christ through the Gospel

This plan of Salvation was progressive in nature… unfolding in History. There is one theme that flows through both OT and the NT and that is Salvation of God’s people.

Paul goes onto say that this not something new… The has been God’s plan all along…

Behind creation is this mystery of God’s master plan that fully realized in Christ. Even though it was kept hidden for ages and is fully realized in Christ..

Redemptive history moves from creation to the fall to redemption to consummation. It’s what frames all of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Some have termed it “the story of God’s glory”

We are both saved and being saved…

Augustine some it up like this...

The love … with which God loves is incomprehensible and immutable. For it was not from the time that we were reconciled unto Him by the blood of His Son that He began to love us; but He did so before the foundation of the world, that we also might be His sons along with His Only-begotten, before as yet we had any existence of our own. St Augustine

T/S God’s Blue Print is a master Plan and...

2. It’s a plan of Ransom and Rescue

In the fall of 2010, billions of people around the globe were captivated by the story of the Chilean miners. Trapped beneath two thousand feet of solid rock, the thirty-three men were desperate. The collapse of a main tunnel had sealed their exit and thrust them into survival mode. They ate two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk, and a morsel of peaches—every other day. For two months they prayed for someone to save them.

On the surface above, the Chilean rescue team worked around the clock, consulting NASA, meeting with experts. They designed a thirteen-foot-tall capsule and drilled, first a communication hole, then an excavation tunnel. There was no guarantee of success. No one had ever been trapped underground this long and lived to tell about it.

Now someone has.

On October 13, 2010, the men began to emerge, slapping high fives and leading victory chants. A great-grandfather. A forty-four-year-old who was planning a wedding. Then a nineteen-year-old. All had different stories, but all had made the same decision. They trusted someone else to save them. No one returned the rescue offer with a declaration of independence: "I can get out of here on my own. Just give me a new drill.' They had stared at the stone tomb long enough to reach the unanimous opinion: "We need help. We need someone to penetrate this world and pull us out.' And when the rescue capsule came, they climbed in…

This is what happened in Salvation.. We needed Rescuing from without.

John 3:16–17 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

This is the cornerstone verse of the Gospel… The love of God is the deepest possible expression of God’s character… behind Creation is this God with an amazing capacity to love us… God’s unconditional love that reached out to us to save us...

George Whitfield the great revivalist said

“God could not, nor can, receive any additional good by our salvation. But it was love, mere love; it was free love that brought the Lord Jesus Christ into our world.” George Whitfield.

There is this willingness on the part of God to give himself on behalf of his creation… When it came to Salvation- God did not send anyone… on the mission. He came himself! The word “gave” here implies a sacrifice to relinquish something…

Jesus knew that he was on a mission to give his life…

John 10 Jesus predicts his death —

He mentions Four times he tells us that he would lay down his life voluntarily.

John 10:18 ESV

18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Notice that Jesus not only predicts His death but that he would also take up his life again… Jesus was not a helpless pawn on the history’s chessboard...

Jesus laying down his life tells that Jesus gave everything he had… No greater love than to lay down ones life for a brother...

Romans 5:8 ESV

8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The purpose of any rescue is to bring people from the brink of peril to the place of safety...

The purpose of the rescue is to bring us into eternal life… to bring us from the brink of perishing- being without spiritual life under the condemnation of God.... into his state of eternal life.... God’s purpose in coming was never to condemn the world but to save us…

Paul reminds the Church to walk in love towards one another — because in the cross of Christ we see love — love of God given and demonstrated.

T/S God’s Blue Print is a master Plan and...

3. It’s a Plan Grounded in Grace Alone.

In 2006 there was an article by the written by the Associated Press, entitled “How Do You Spend $1.5 Billion a Year?”

It was about Warren Buffet, the world’s second-richest man, announced in June 2006 that he would donate 85 percent of his $44 billion fortune to five charitable foundations.

Commenting on this extreme level of generosity, Buffet said: “There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way.”

This was an act of extreme Generosity…but…

There is this philosophy in the world that if we do goods deeds we are earning credit... somewhere…out there in the cloud there is a scoreboard and every-time we do something for someone we get a point... if we get enough points God might over look a few things. When it comes to Salvation it is by grace alone..this was true for both Israel and the Church.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The basis of salvation is grace—God’s undeserved generosity toward us.

Paul in His letter the Ephesians gives us this wonderful description of How God Poured out.

Ephesians 1:3–7 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

vrs 3The word “blessed” here is a verb and speaks of God generously and joyfully pouring our his blessing on his children. God is blessed and he has blessed his Children (passed tense) with every Spiritual blessings in heavenly places… Something that happened in the past has already occured… even from eternity past God was preparing to bless us through the benefits that come from Christ. God’s blessings dosen’t have a shelf life… there is no expirey date… they are spiritual and eternal in nature..

All the way from the begining before the foundation of the world.. this plan of Salvation has been unfolding… being realized… We simply have to accept these things by Faith…These blessings reside in the heavenly realm where Christ is...

vrs 4.

The point that Paul is making is that if you thought that you made any contribution in your salvation you are wrong. You were saved only because of God’s grace and mercy; as believers we are not saved by our own merit. It focuses on God’s purpose or will (1:5, 9, 11), not on ours. God does not save us because we deserve it but because he graciously and freely gives salvation.

We did not influence God’s decision to save us; he saved us according to his plan. Thus, we may not take credit for our salvation or take pride in our wise choice

God chose his people before he made the world. The mystery of salvation originated in the timeless mind of God (2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:9). Before God created anything, his plan was in place to give eternal salvation to those who would believe on his Son. Before God created people, he knew sin would occur, he knew a penalty would have to be paid, and he knew that he himself (in his Son) would pay it.

T/S God’s Blue Print is a master Plan and....

4. It’s a Plan that can be Counted on.

It is comprehensive plan in that we have received fulness of Grace. John writes about the word becoming flesh and living among us… and not only have we seen his glory displayed in Creation… we have seen his Glory of Christ as the only Son of the Father… Full of Grace and Truth… We have seen these qualities… in Christ… John then says.... In salvation we have received all that Christ had to offer...

John 1:16 ESV

16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

John’s description conveys a subtle invitation for us to trust Jesus’ ability to meet our needs.

That we have all benefited includes all the believers, not just John and the apostles. All believers receive Christ’s blessings, but nothing can deplete Christ—no matter how much the believers receive of him, he keeps on giving.

His strength is not diminished by helping us. We do not need to seek any other source of spiritual power but Christ. Christ himself fulfills our Christian life; we do not need to seek anything beyond him.

We have Hope that doesn’t Disappoint us…

Years ago, I watched an informercial of a product called “Dent be Gone.” It claimed to remove dents in you car… and we had one dent that was bothering me.. So, I ordered the product… what I got was a suction cup and a glue gun for 19.99… The TV commercial must have been convincing because I really believed… that same dent that the panel beaters would have to hammer out… I could take care of with a glue stick..

Talk about putting your hope in something that was going to fail!!

Romans 5:5 ESV

and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

When we place our Hope in Christ we will not be disappointed — Because his love has been poured out… through the means of the Holy Spirit… We have talking about this funnel of Generosity… Well God’s love is fluid --- and it has been poured out by the Holy Spirit… It is interesting that the Holy Spirit is used metaphorically of Oil and of Water…

The Holy Spirit is the divine Agent who expresses to a believer the love of God, that is, God’s love for him.

The reality of God’s love in a believer’s heart gives the assurance, even the guarantee, that the believer’s hope in God and His promise of glory is not misplaced and will not faith… Therefore we hope … There are all kinds of barriers to the love of God…