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[0:00] Please may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may All right, if you've got your Bible, go to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 12.

[0:56] Luke chapter 12, and we'll be reading verse 48 here in just a moment. We have been in a series this summer called Good Intention, and this is either going to be really good news or really bad news, but this evening will be the end of this series.

[1:11] And if you really liked it, that's bad news. If you didn't like it, you're happy, right? It's kind of been basically a six-week series, and what we've looked at is a healthy, balanced Christian life.

[1:24] We've looked at topics like having a balance between spending time with people and spending time with God. We've looked at the balance between prayer and obedience, feasting and fasting, work and rest, and then last week, faith and works.

[1:43] And we're going to look at one more that's very important in Scripture, and I'm just going to kind of tell you up front, tonight's going to be a bit of a different sermon for me. I hope that's okay with you.

[1:53] Typically, if you've been a part of Faith Family for some time, you know that primarily what we do is we stick with one main passage and kind of unpack that passage.

[2:05] This is actually going to be a bit of a biblical overview of a specific principle that is found throughout Scripture. In fact, it runs all the way through all of the Bible.

[2:15] It gets expressed in multiple ways, and kind of a general way of expressing this principle or this idea is the tension between receiving and giving, or giving and receiving.

[2:31] And this is something, again, that is dealt with throughout Scripture. So, if you'll give me a little bit of grace to preach a bit of a different sermon. Is everybody okay with that? I mean, I was going to anyways, but I'm really thankful for your support, all right?

[2:45] So, now, what I'm going to do, in fact, the verse that I'm going to read, it's just one verse, does not mean short sermon. It just means one verse. And this verse really is kind of the principle that then I'm going to take the rest of our time this evening to unpack through a few different examples in the Bible.

[3:06] And that verse, again, is Luke chapter 12, and the last part of the verse, verse 48. So, if you're able to stand, please do so as we honor the reading of God's Word.

[3:18] And look here in Luke 12, and the last half of the verse says this. Everyone to whom much is, say it, given, of him much will be required.

[3:32] And from him to whom they entrust much, they will demand the more. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for our time now to be able to study your Word.

[3:47] This topic is so important. It's so important. And Lord, you have revealed it in many ways through your Word to us.

[3:58] And I really pray that we would be very receptive to what you would say to us this evening, that you would really come and speak to us and identify this tension in our life between giving and receiving and help us and help us understand what it is that you expect from those who have been given much.

[4:21] And we pray this in Jesus' name and God's people said, Amen. Amen. You can be seated. It's probably the most famous story of a sinking ship in human history.

[4:33] I mean, books have been written on it. Movies have been made about it. Documentaries have looked at the details of it. If you had one guess, what do you think I would be referring to?

[4:45] The sinking of the? Very good class. Very good. The sinking of the Titanic. A plus, right? Now, most of you know the story of the Titanic.

[4:56] The Titanic was the largest, most luxurious ship of its day. 882 feet long, weighing more than 46,000 tons, carrying more than 2,200 passengers.

[5:14] And if you know the story, on April the 10th, 1912, the Titanic set out on her maiden voyage from England on its way to New York. So, four days into the voyage, just before midnight on the 14th, while traveling through the North Atlantic, the Titanic struck a what?

[5:36] An iceberg along the side of the ship. Now, at first, the Titanic didn't seem as though it was going to sink. It had actually been designed with watertight compartments specifically to protect the ship in case of serious damage.

[5:52] And, of course, once it hit the iceberg, the crew is immediately starting to pump out water that was coming into the boat. But as water began to fill the compartments, what happened is the bow of the ship became heavy and the ship would begin to sink just a little bit deeper into the ocean.

[6:13] And, of course, what did that cause? As it goes a little bit deeper, it causes more water to start pouring in, which makes it heavier and it sinks a little bit more, which causes it to what?

[6:28] Take on more water. And so, this continued on and on until eventually the weight of all the water that had poured into the ship overwhelmed it.

[6:39] And at 2.20 a.m. on April the 15th, less than three hours after striking that iceberg, the Titanic would disappear beneath the North Atlantic.

[6:52] And as you probably remember from history, of the over 2,200 people that were on board, roughly 1,500 of them died.

[7:03] It's a tragic story, isn't it? It's a very tragic story, but it's actually a story that teaches us a very important principle, a very important lesson.

[7:15] And this is a lesson that every single one of us actually knows in life. And here's the idea. It's that when your intake is significantly more, significantly greater than the outflow, usually some kind of death or some type of significant consequence takes place.

[7:36] Are you with me? Say yes. When your intake is greater than the outflow, there's usually some type of serious consequence.

[7:46] And this happens in so many different ways. You know this. Take, for example, if you were just to continually eat food. Now, some of you think that is a fantastic idea, right?

[7:57] If you were to continually eat food but never digest it, no pictures of that will be on the screen. If you were just to constantly take food in and never actually digest it, you would get so full you would explode, right?

[8:15] We know this. Or take, for example, blood flowing through the heart. Blood is meant to come in and out and in and out of the heart.

[8:26] And what happens? Maybe some of you have experienced this. What happens when something blocks that where the circulation isn't what it's supposed to be? You have a heart attack.

[8:38] You have a heart attack. You have some type of serious consequence when your intake and outflow are off. The same thing is not only true with our heart.

[8:49] It's also true with our lungs. This is the audience participation part of the sermon, and I want everybody to participate, okay, unless you can't for some reason. When I count to three, I want you to take a deep breath, and I want you to hold it.

[9:05] Hold it as long as you can, okay? You ready? Everybody going to participate? Here we go. One, two, three. Three. Right?

[9:17] Okay, you can let it out. Now, what would happen if you, like, never let that out? If you held that breath in and it never came out, what would happen? You'd pass out, or even worse.

[9:31] Because you know that that which comes in is, in order for you to be healthy, needs to come out. In other words, here, like, this is so simple, I know.

[9:41] But the point is, is that your health, your life requires circulation. Are you with me? It requires circulation. Do you remember, I've shared this example before, I've actually been and visited it many years ago, as to what makes the Dead Sea dead.

[10:00] Do you remember, or do you know? The Dead Sea is dead because all this water channels to the Dead Sea, but the Dead Sea has no outlet. It doesn't get rid of anything.

[10:12] The only way water goes away is evaporation. And so, all this salt just piles up in the Dead Sea, and you can see it there. It's why if you go in the Dead Sea, you'll float.

[10:24] And it's so salty. Are you listening? There's no life. Hence, Dead Sea, right? Everything, it's dead, right?

[10:35] Because it's always taking in, but it's actually never giving out. And so, in so many ways, we know this principle to be true, whether it's the Titanic, or our heart, or lungs, or the Dead Sea.

[10:50] When your intake is significantly greater than your outflow, some kind of death, or serious consequence occurs. Everybody got that big idea?

[11:02] The same thing is true spiritually. Spiritually speaking, when there is always intake and no outflow, your spiritual arteries become clogged.

[11:23] When there is always receiving and not enough giving, it results in a kind of spiritual deadness in our lives.

[11:35] Amen? So, part of what it means, like you already know this, like physically, your physical health. So, part of what it means to be spiritually healthy or spiritually balanced is to learn how to hold intention, receiving, and giving.

[11:56] Intake and outflow. Now, before you think, when I use the word giving, some of you, at least a few of you, may be jumping to like money or finances. And that's, by the way, true, and I'll actually show you that tonight as well.

[12:10] But I want to show you how this principle applies to so many different areas in the Bible. Are you ready? Let's look at one first example in John chapter 13.

[12:23] I know you know this story. But now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

[12:35] During supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given Him all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, He gets up from supper, and He lays aside His outer garments, and He takes a towel and ties it around His waist.

[12:55] And then He pours water into a basin, and He began to do what? Everybody say it. Wash the disciples' feet, and wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.

[13:06] Now, again, I know you know this story. This is very familiar to you, but it is worth taking just a few moments and reminding ourselves of what took place here in this upper room.

[13:18] That Jesus did a lot of radical things in His ministry. Amen? I mean, Jesus did some things that just seemed to be very, very bizarre at times, and I think this might be the top of the list.

[13:31] It is one of the most bizarre, crazy, shocking things that Jesus did throughout His ministry. He gets up from the table, He pours some water into a basin, and again, you know, He begins to wash the feet of the disciples.

[13:49] Now, washing feet wasn't scandalous. Washing feet was actually extremely common, and not only common, it was necessary in the ancient world.

[14:01] As you know, they didn't have shoes like you and I do. They had sandals, and they're walking around in a very desert-like condition, and, you know, they don't have, is it pedicure or manicure?

[14:13] Whatever, right? They don't have either of those, actually. And so their feet are really, really disgusting. People are walking around everywhere all the time, and their feet are nasty.

[14:23] And so washing feet was just a very common thing for people to do. That's not shocking at all. What is shocking, what is so scandalous, is not the washing of feet, it's Jesus washing feet.

[14:40] That's what's shocking. Because Jewish rabbis wouldn't even let Jewish slaves wash feet. Only Gentile slaves, that is the very lowest of society, were the only people to do this very disgusting act of service.

[15:01] Well, Jesus is not only a rabbi, as we'll see here in just a moment, He's the Son of God. Amen? I mean, come on, you know the context of this. The whole Passover meal, that they're about to partake together, Jesus is going to say, that's about me.

[15:20] The whole Exodus story was about Jesus. He is the Messiah. And yet, Jesus, of all people, takes off His outer garment, sticks His messianic fingers in between the nasty toes of common fishermen.

[15:41] Can you even imagine how disgusting that was? Can all of us agree that this is probably one of the greatest acts of humility, certainly that has ever been recorded in Scripture, one of the greatest acts of serving someone else?

[16:01] What does Jesus do next? Come on, you know the story. Here's what happens. When He had washed their feet and put on His outer garments and resumed His place, He said to them, Do you understand what I've done?

[16:17] You call me rabbi, teacher, and lord, and you're right. I am teacher, and I am lord. Lord, if I, if I, lord and teacher, have washed your feet, then you also ought to say it with me, wash one another's feet.

[16:43] Now, this is not what you would expect to happen. What you would expect to happen would be something like this. I have washed your feet, now you wash my feet.

[16:57] That would be the common way you would think this would go. That's not how it goes. Because Jesus did not come into the world to be served, He came to serve. In other words, notice this on the screen.

[17:09] Jesus does not expect His disciples to wash His feet. Jesus expected the disciples to wash one another's feet.

[17:22] Do you see the principle? Because you have been served, because you have received this incredible act of humility and service, give.

[17:39] Serve. As I have done this to you, do this to one another. Does everybody see that?

[17:51] Why? Why? Because here's what Jesus understands about your spiritual health. If all you ever do is be served, and you don't ever actually serve, you are spiritually the Titanic.

[18:10] you're constantly taking in, but you're never giving out. And Jesus says that's a problem.

[18:22] That's a problem. That's not how His disciples are meant to be. His disciples are actually to understand the tension between what we have received from Jesus, and then what we do to one another.

[18:37] Amen? Now, is this the only example of this tension? In other words, is this idea of giving and receiving only seen in serving?

[18:49] No, it's not. Let's now jump, I told you we'd jump around, Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18, verse 21, Peter comes up to Jesus and says, Lord, I got a question for you.

[18:59] Here's my question. How often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Maybe seven times? Now, in Matthew 18, Peter has got this really important question that he wants to ask Jesus, and the question is, how many times should I forgive someone who has offended me?

[19:20] Now, this is not a random question. We just read verse 21. If you go back and read verses 15 through 20, what you'll discover is the context here is that Jesus has been talking about conflict.

[19:33] More specifically, what do you do when a brother or sister has offended you or sinned against you? And this sparks a question in Peter's mind, and his question is, well, then what are the boundaries?

[19:49] What are the limits? What's the rule? What are the expectations? And I believe what's going on in Peter's mind when he says, how about seven times, is that Peter actually thinks that Jesus is going to give him a trophy for being so super spiritual.

[20:12] Like, Peter probably thinks, I'm going to be disciple of the month for even suggesting this. Why? Because the Jewish leaders taught that you are obligated to forgive up to three times.

[20:26] So Peter here is willing to go above and beyond three. He's willing to take it all the way up to seven. Do you see how spiritual Peter is?

[20:37] Jesus is going to be so proud of me. Now, notice just as a side note how the human heart always defaults to law instead of grace.

[20:50] Peter wants a rule. He wants, like, just tell me what the number is. That way I know I don't have to go over it. So that if they get to eight, I'm not obligated anymore.

[21:01] Are you with me? Are you with me? So Jesus is going to take this idea that Peter has in his mind and he's going to totally turn it on its head in a way that Jesus frequently would do, which was tell a story.

[21:15] The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. And when he began to settle, one brought to him one that owed how much?

[21:25] Ten thousand talents. That's a lot of money. We'll talk about it. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made.

[21:38] So the servant fell on his knees imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant did what?

[21:52] Just let him go. And forgave him the debt. So Jesus tells this story and it breaks down very simply. First of all, this servant clearly had an impossible debt.

[22:07] I said we'd come back to this. He owes the king or the master 10,000 talents. One talent is about 20 years of salary. So do the math.

[22:19] So I'm from Tennessee. I'll get my toes out here and count it up. It's 200,000 years of salary. 200,000 years of it. In other words, it's a debt you could never pay.

[22:31] Not in your wildest imaginations, not in multiple lifetimes could you ever pay that amount. And he receives a just verdict. He loses everything, his family, his possessions, because in the ancient world, there's no bankruptcy court.

[22:46] So in light of all this, he knows he has only one option. He pleads for mercy. Please don't give me what I deserve. Have mercy on me.

[22:56] In fact, what does this man literally become? He becomes a beggar. He has no other option but to plead for mercy from the master. He even attempted good works.

[23:09] I'll pay it back somehow, some way, I'll do it. But he knows there's ultimately no way out of this debt. Are you with me? And so what does the master do?

[23:20] The master then expresses this unbelievable, like as radical as Jesus washing feet, this unbelievable act of grace. And he doesn't lower the debt.

[23:33] He doesn't say, well, we'll drop it down to a year. He just says, you're free. You're free. You don't owe me anything.

[23:45] The debt settled. Now, you don't need a seminary degree to know exactly what Jesus is describing here. Amen? It's how you got into the kingdom of God.

[23:58] It's how you became, if you are a Christian, it is how you became a Christian. It's your story. Namely, that you and I have sinned against a holy God that has put us in a position of impossible debt because perfection is the only form of payment that a perfect, holy God will receive, which meant the result was you deserved eternal separation from God.

[24:25] And in all your attempts to work off your debt, you could never pay off the debt that you owed God in a hundred lifetimes.

[24:36] There's no chance that you could ever pay your debt to God. Your only hope was to do what? Ask for mercy. To ask for grace.

[24:47] And the good news of the gospel is that if you're a Christian, He did. And if you're not a Christian, He will forgive you of all your debt and set you free.

[25:01] That's the gospel. That's the gospel. I mean, it's precisely what the Apostle Paul says in Colossians chapter 2, verse 13. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made a lie together with Him.

[25:17] Having, say it, forgiven us all. He didn't lower it to a year. He forgave all of our trespasses.

[25:28] How? By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside. This He paid in full. Say it, nailing it to the cross.

[25:41] That is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at all these amens. Yeah, there's amens because you know this is your story.

[25:54] Preach, preacher. Story ain't over. Story, in fact, not only is the story not over, we're not even to the main point.

[26:07] Because, listen, listen, Peter's question was not how many times will God forgive. Peter's question is how many times do I have to?

[26:21] So, finish the story. But when the, say it, same servant went out, well, he found one of his fellow servants servants, who owed him a hundred denarii.

[26:38] We'll talk about that in a minute. Seizing him, he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe. And his fellow servant did the exact same thing he did. Fell down and pleaded for mercy.

[26:49] Have patience with me and I'll pay you. What did the servant do? He refused and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. Now, if that were the only part of the story, we'd probably understand.

[27:06] If that's all there was, we would probably understand. That's right. Of course. Ose him money, ought to pay him, can't pay it, in prison you go. Right? But it's the first, are you with me?

[27:19] The first part of the story, namely, forgiveness received, that makes the second part of the story, forgiveness denied, so shocking.

[27:35] Notice it on the screen, faith family. It is, it simply does not make any sense how someone who's been forgiven so much can refuse to forgive so little.

[27:49] And the story's still not done. Let's finish it, verse 31. When his fellow servant saw that he had, what had taken place, they're distressed, they go and tell the master what's happened.

[28:00] The master summons the original servant, and what does he say? You, wicked servant. It's pretty intense.

[28:12] Like, there's, there's a wickedness to you. I forgave you all that debt. Why? Because you asked for mercy.

[28:25] Because you asked for grace. Come on. Are you with me? Should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant?

[28:39] As I had mercy on you. And in his anger, the master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt, that impossible debt.

[28:51] so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Jesus' point here is very, very, very clear.

[29:03] Again, that you don't need a degree in New Testament to figure this out. Here it is. A servant who has been forgiven much but refuses to forgive a little is a servant who isn't forgiven at all.

[29:17] They're dead. They're dead. Because, now there's a lot I could say on this but my goal was not to teach this particular passage but what's clearly taught here is this.

[29:35] Notice it on the screen that forgiveness is the overflow of being what? Forgiven. In other words, now take this all the way back to Peter.

[29:45] Peter, this is not about a law. It's not about a law. It's about the Lord. It's about that someone who has experienced or received forgiveness intake but doesn't like give that forgiveness outflow, what's going to happen is you're going to end up like the Titanic.

[30:08] You're going to sink. There's going to be a spiritual death that takes place in your life because you have taken in all this forgiveness that God has given you and yet you're not giving that out to others.

[30:24] Does everybody see that? And the Apostle Paul frequently will talk about this. Ephesians 4.32 Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, say it, as God in Christ forgave you.

[30:39] He says this also in Colossians 3.13 Bearing with one another and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. How? As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also should consider.

[30:56] No. You must forgive. Are you seeing the connection between giving and receiving? It's Jesus has served us so much He expects us to give out that same kind of service to others.

[31:16] That Jesus has forgiven us so much He expects us to give out that kind of forgiveness to others.

[31:27] Well, this principle not only applies to serving, not only to forgiving, but also, yes, even if you don't like this topic, don't care, financial generosity.

[31:38] Financial generosity. I could go to a lot of New Testament passages to point this out, but why don't we go Old Testament? Why don't we go a little Old Testament tonight? Because there's a really beautiful story that happened in the life of David in a book that maybe some of you haven't read recently called First Chronicles.

[31:58] First Chronicles chapter 29 and pick it up here in verse 1. I'm going to kind of skip around here for the sake of time. So David, the king, he calls all the assembly together and he announces this, Solomon, Solomon, my son, whom alone God has chosen, we'll explain what that means in a moment, is young and inexperienced and the work is great for the palace will not be for man but for the Lord.

[32:24] So I have provided for the house of my God, what's he referring to? The temple. So far as I was able, gold, of the things that are gold and silver for the things that are silver and bronze and iron and wood, he's listing out all these resources of the things of wood, all the stones, the precious stones and marble.

[32:46] Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, watch this, I have a treasure, it's my own treasure, of my own gold and silver and because of my devotion to the house of my God, I give it to the house of my God and then he lists off all the donations, 3,000 talents of gold and 7,000 talents of refined silver and gold for the things of gold and silver for the things of silver and then he's like, who else?

[33:15] In addition to this extraordinarily generous gift that I'm making, who else will offer willingly consecrating himself to the Lord and then the leaders of the father's houses made their free will offerings and did also the leaders of the tribe and the commanders of thousands and hundreds of the officers of the king's work.

[33:35] Everybody with me? Now, let me give you the context of what's going on here so that we understand. David is going to die soon. These are some of the last days of David and as you know the story in the Old Testament, are you all still with me?

[33:49] We're getting pretty much close to being done. Throughout the story of the Old Testament, really ever since Egypt, God's presence had dwelt with his people primarily through one way and that was the tabernacle.

[34:05] And it was constantly on the move as Israel was on the move and this is where the presence of Yahweh would dwell with his people. Well, David's desire when he became king, you know this, is he actually wanted to build a temple in what he made as the capital city, namely Jerusalem.

[34:24] So rather than this tent of meeting, rather than this tabernacle on the move, he wanted to build a temple. And you remember what God told David, David, you actually will not be the one to build the temple.

[34:36] Who will build the temple? Solomon. That's what David meant by Solomon was the chosen. That is, Solomon's actually the one that's going to build the temple. So David wants to make sure, since he won't be the one building it, that the project to build it is fully funded.

[34:54] Is everybody with me? And boy, was it. Were you paying attention when we read through that list of all the amount of financial generosity that went into the building of the temple?

[35:08] A large part of this generous gift came from David's own wallet. It was the resources that he had personally gained as a result of being king.

[35:23] In fact, David's generosity was so great as we read, it actually inspired the other leaders throughout Israel to give as well.

[35:35] And did you notice that David didn't twist their arm? He didn't say, give or else. He just said, does anybody want to join me? Would anybody else like to be generous towards the work of the Lord?

[35:48] Right? Now, some of you are thinking like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but David's a king. He's filthy rich. Like, David is like the Elon Musk of the ancient Near East.

[36:01] And he was. David was. Very wealthy. But I don't care how rich you are, you're going to notice the absence of 260 tons of gold from your treasury.

[36:13] All right? And no one not going to feel the cost of that. The sacrifice that was involved in that. My point is, is this cost David something? This was a very sacrificial gift.

[36:26] Now, I could stop here, which is what most preachers do, and turn this into a sermon about giving to the church followed by an offering. Should we do that?

[36:37] Right? That would be very lame. We will take an offering later, but not as a result of this. It's part of our worship. What I want you to see is the connection.

[36:49] Say, preach preacher. I want you to see the connection in David's heart and mind that allowed him, that led him to be so incredibly generous with his resources.

[37:03] What was the thing that David understood that led to this gift? Here it is. David blessed the Lord. In other words, later on in this same chapter in verse 10, David's going to pray.

[37:16] He's going to offer a prayer of blessing. Blessed be the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said, Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.

[37:27] Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and victory and the majesty. Are you paying attention? Here it is. For all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth is whose?

[37:46] Yahweh's. Everything. Whether it's in heaven or on earth, it belongs to you. Yours is the kingdom, Yahweh. You are exalted as head above all.

[37:58] Come on. Both riches and, say it, honor come from you. And you rule over all. In your hand are power and might and in your hand is to make great and to give strength to all.

[38:14] And now we thank you. We are grateful, our God. And praise your glorious name. But who am I? And what is my people that we should be able thus to even offer this willingly?

[38:31] And here it is. Here's the connection. For all things come from you. And of your own have we given you.

[38:46] What is David's view of the world? What is David's understanding of where everything comes from? Are you tracking with me?

[38:58] David understands that everything he has comes from Yahweh. David had this firm conviction that whether it's in heaven or whether it's on earth it belongs to God.

[39:13] Listen. Which includes all the wealth he had accumulated as being king. And it's not just about wealth. That's why I made you say the word honor.

[39:25] Because did you see where David says, who am I? Who am I? To which I want to say, who are you? King David? Right?

[39:36] I mean only like the greatest king in all of Israel. Only a king that 3,000 years later we're still talking about on the other side of the planet. You're King David.

[39:48] But David doesn't see himself as significant, does he? not compare to the glory of Yahweh. In other words, here's my point. Here's my point. Come on, zone in.

[39:59] David sees his status, his success, his fame, and his fortune as gifts.

[40:11] They were all things he had received. He hadn't earned them, he had received them by the good and sovereign hand of God.

[40:34] So why was David able to give so much? Because he had received so much. David held intention, intake, and output.

[40:54] Receiving and giving. And listen to me, faith family, I really am close to none. If we don't hold those two things in tension, we will not be the generous people God wants his people to be.

[41:14] And you should amen that. If you do not understand all that has been given to you, you will not be a very giving person.

[41:27] Whether that's with your money, your resources, your status, whatever it is that may be. And here's what's going to happen. I'm just telling you. I'm just telling you what the Bible is telling you is that if you don't learn to make that connection, and if you don't learn to live in that tension, you're going to end up just like the Titanic.

[41:48] Spiritually sunk. Always taking in more, more, more, God, give me more, give me more, give me more. Yeah, but what are you doing with it?

[42:00] What are you doing with it? And some of you might say to me tonight, but pastor, I haven't received that much. I haven't received that much. To which I would say to you, really?

[42:12] Really? Do you want me to punch you now or out in the cafe? Because if you say that, not only are there deeper issues going on in your heart if you actually believe that, but someone really does need to slap you and wake you up.

[42:27] Like, sincerely, I give you permission in Jesus' name. Slap the person that says, I just haven't been given much, right? Have you been given the riches of God's love?

[42:43] Yes, you have. If you're a Christian, yes, you have, alright? So then, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

[42:59] Have you received the riches of God's mercy that He has poured out on you, like the servant in Matthew 18, mercy upon mercy.

[43:12] Yes, He has. Yes, He has. So therefore, be merciful even as your Father is merciful.

[43:23] Has He not given you gifts gifts, like David. Maybe your bank account's not to the level of David's, I doubt it is, but God has given you all kinds of gifts and resources.

[43:37] He's given you spiritual gifts, hasn't He, if you're a Christian, right? So what does the Bible tell you to do with that? As each has received a gift, use it.

[43:53] to do what? Serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Has God richly comforted you in your suffering?

[44:09] Yes, He has. So then this, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.

[44:23] You have a high priest who has entered into your suffering. Why? So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the very comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

[44:48] You are Elon Musk. when it comes to the grace of God. You are Elon Musk when it comes to the mercy and love of God.

[45:06] You are filthy rich in God's grace. And so you see the principle here, right?

[45:18] You see the principle that whether it is serving, John 13, forgiving, Matthew 18, giving financially or our resources, 1 Chronicles 29, or love, mercy, spiritual gifts of comfort, the Bible is commanding us to learn the tension between this, intake and output.

[45:43] Intake and output. as we began this very sermon with at the very, very beginning, Luke chapter 12, verse 48, everyone to whom much was of him or her much will be required.

[46:03] And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more. And faith family, this is not just a guideline, this is not just a biblical guideline.

[46:17] As I end, it's the heart of the gospel. It's the very heart of the gospel of Jesus, that you are filthy rich. As I said, you are Elon Musk of grace and mercy.

[46:31] And why is that the case? Why is that the case? Here's why. 2 Corinthians 8, 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[46:42] Do you know it? Have you experienced? If you're a Christian, you have. How did you get that? Because though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor.

[47:00] So that you, by his poverty, might become rich. Faith family, the very heart of the gospel is that there is one to whom belongs power and glory and status and wealth and yet he did not keep it all to himself.

[47:22] He gave his life for you. And through the cross he has served you, forgiven you, loved you, comforted you, gifted you, and made you eternally rich.

[47:42] The question you have to answer tonight is what are you going to do with what you've received? Take it all in or pour it out?

[47:56] I close with this. Back in the 1940s there were two brothers. Their names were Homer and Langley Collier. They lived in New York on Fifth Avenue in Harlem.

[48:08] Both of these men were very educated and successful and over the years they began to accumulate a lot of things. And they basically collected anything they could get their hands on. They collected newspapers, books, furniture, musical instruments, anything that they thought would be useful.

[48:25] In fact they collected so many things their home actually became impossible to live in. Faith family it was so bad.

[48:37] They had to make these little tunnels, you'll see one here, these little tunnels through the piles of possessions just to get from one part of the house to another.

[48:49] And the accumulation of all of this became so severe the house itself started to deteriorate. And the authorities were getting constant complaints about the dangerous living conditions they were in.

[49:03] Finally in March of 1947 someone called the police and reported that there might be a dead body inside the house. When the officers arrived at their place they could not even get through the front door.

[49:19] There was so much stuff. They had to enter through a second story window. Workers spent weeks digging through the house house until they finally found the bodies of both brothers buried beneath all they had kept.

[49:44] The accumulation they once thought was valuable became the very thing that killed them.

[49:56] Faith family listen to me tonight. I'm done. your physical life and your spiritual life requires circulation. Your heart needs blood in and blood out.

[50:10] Your lungs needs air in air out. And your faith needs receiving and giving. Receiving and giving. In order for us to be spiritually healthy we have got to learn the tension between giving and receiving.

[50:27] And so tonight I plead with us let our lives not reflect the Titanic. Taking it in but never giving out.

[50:39] Instead let our lives reflect the cross. A life according to Revelation 5 that receives blessing honor and glory forever.

[50:53] And yet God so loved the world he gave. And all God's people said amen. Let's pray together. Let's pray.

[51:05] Father thank you for teaching us this evening this principle of giving and receiving. I think if we were honest with our lives we we often take in a lot more than we share out.

[51:22] And that's not spiritually healthy. It's very clear when Jesus washed the disciples feet that he expected that radical act of service.

[51:34] The radical act of forgiveness. forgiveness. The radical like sharing and blessing that you did in David's life.

[51:47] That all of these things are examples for us to do to one another. To not just take in but to be givers. For the very heart of the gospel is that you so loved the world you gave.

[52:03] And so tonight as we come to the cross through communion I mean we are right up in the face of the ultimate sacrifice. The ultimate gift.

[52:15] The one who received blessing and honor and yet gave his life. And I pray that we would see in the very life of Jesus this tension of giving and receiving and that it would convict us and encourage us to do the same.

[52:36]  We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.