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Tell Me Without Telling Me || Week 1

Tell me you are a Christian without Telling me you are a Christian

Meaning…

If you were accused of being a Christian, is there enough evidence

First, what it means to be a “Christian”

Title first shows up about Jesus followers in Antioch (Acts 11:29)
Previously called “Followers of the Way”
Came from Jesus calling himself the “Way, Truth, and Life”

Christian: Belonging to the party of Christ or follower of Christ

A true Christian is a person who has put faith and trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ, including His death on the cross as payment for sins and His resurrection on the third day

Briefly, let’s discuss how you become a Christian

Not by:

Being born into a Christian family
Not coming to church every Sunday
Not owning a bible
Not knowing a few Bible verses
Not even having a Jesus fish on your car
Or a Christian Tattoo on your arm

You CANNOT CULTURALLY be a Christian

It is not through osmosis
Each person must decide for themselves

Romans 10:9-10

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
Salvation comes to us by God’s grace alone when we understand, accept, and declare our full allegiance to Jesus Christ through repenting and turning from our sins and self
It is important to know it this way…

Being a Christian isn’t a way of living, but knowing a person

Not living “Being an American”

Or like your last name

Every man, woman, and child must make their own decision
We live in a culture and time when you can “Seem Christian” by the things you say, but not demonstrated in the things you do

But this is not a Christianity that holds power and influence in the world
This is not a Christianity that produces change on behalf of the people in the world

Tell me you are a Christian without Telling me You are a Christian

James, the brother of Jesus actually has some really good things to say about this very thing…

James 2:14

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.

In this series, we are going to be talking about a few things that should Permeate our life and “Tell People you are a Christian” without Telling them you are

How the WORKS of our life should be the EXPRESSION about the FAITH in our HEART

Week 1: Generosity

What is Christian Generosity?

Christian Generosity is sharing ourselves and resources with others in response and recognition to God’s ever-presentblessings and continual fulfillment of our needs over and above what we need or deserve.
2 Big Questions:

1 – Why Should we be Generous?

Generosity is a natural consequence of God’s creation of humanity. Generosity is a mark of one whose life is found in God’s saving work. Generosity is modeled by Jesus and continued in His name by those who find their hope in Him. When such generosity is found, our culture and civilization will flourish! ~ Dr. Ty Benbow (Christian Professor)

We should be generous because our Father is generous

Philippians 4:19

19 And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 50:7-12

7 “Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel. I am God, your God. 8 I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices or for your burnt offerings, which are continually before me. 9 I will not take a bull from your household or male goats from your pens, 10 for every animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird of the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and everything in it is mine.

We don’t serve a BROKE God

God will never NEED something from us because EVERYTHING is CONTAINED in and FLOWS OUT OF Him

SCARCITY VS GENEROCITY

Living in sin is a spiritual “Great Depression”

You will never have enough of what you think you need
You will never be satisfied
This is the lie of sin, that you can take all you want, but it will never give you what you actually need

But we must stop living this way if we are to be the GENEROUS people of God

Ephesians 4:22-24

22 Take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

As a Jesus followers, we serve a God with cattle on a thousand hill

He supplies all our needs in his riches in Glory
He, who sent his Son to be the stand-in for our punishment
Our Savior who chose to go to the Cross knowing full well what lay before him

We are generous because the life-changing love of our fathers beckons us to change and be more like him

Not to get more from him
Not to manipulate him

But in honor, respect, and love FOR him

TRUE CHRISTIAN GENEROSITY is in response and recognition to God’s ever-present blessings and continual fulfillment of our needs over and above what we need or deserve.

Your generosity will tell the story of God’s love in your heart

Either a lot or a little

Simply put, We are generous because God is generous

We are generous because His supply will never run out
When we are generous, we are the most like Jesus, who was generous with his own life

2nd Big Question

2 – How should we be generous?

Let’s look at what the very early Christian church was going…
Acts 2:42-47

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
A growing and thriving Jesus community is a generous Jesus community.
This passage should make us uncomfortable…

They were selling all their possessions
They were giving freely to those in need
We want rules in place to make sure people “DESERVE” our generosity

How could they live like this?

They had found something worth more than all of their possessions combined – The Love, Presence, And Forgiveness Of Jesus

They did not have scarcity thinking.

Specifically, They were being generous with 3 things:

Time

Influence

Money/Resources

The takeaway should not be that today, you should start selling off all your possessions

Of quitting your job to help serve people

But we must understand that generous living should affect the way WE live our life

We should be giving enough time/influence/money that it affects the quality of living

If you are only giving of yourself so little that it doesn’t’ make a difference, you are NOT being generous

Time

When you are living for yourself, you will find that time seems shorter, but when lived in generosity, time seems to multiply
Be ok with the distractions and detours God sends your way to bless others

Influence

Leveraging your power and position to help those who cannot help themselves
Socially
Financially
Politically (advocating for those who have no advocate)

Money/Resources

A 10% tithe is a good baseline, but it does not have to end there

The Biblical model has always been to give and support your local church

But be generous in helping other nonprofits

If you don’t feel comfortable giving money straight to people, support programs and organizations that help people in need

Programs our church supports:

Dazz – A pregnancy crisis center

Samaritan’s House – Homeless shelter

Salvation Army – Clothing and food

Casa Family Systems – Shelter and safety for women and children escaping abuse
In all of these things, the way to not be overwhelmed is to seek God so you recognize what HE wants you to do
Tell me you are a Christian without telling me you are a Christian…