Growing Together Week 3

Spiritual Principles (Philippians 4:4-19)

“And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” This week I thought to myself, as I often have, “How do I know that this promise is for me, today, and not merely a statement Paul was making to a specific church, at a specific point in time, for a specific purpose? What makes me think that this is, as it’s often called, a “promise of God” for me today? The Bible doesn’t say that this is a promise for me today. What makes us assume that this is some universal guarantee? And we’ve all heard Christians quote this in entitlement terms as if God owes it to them, no matter what.

In fact, it’s likely you’ve felt guilty, thinking thoughts like this: “Wait a minute. I’ve known many people that didn’t seem to have ALL their needs met. Some Christians never seem to shake the struggle, and some even walk away from God. I’ve seen some people treat God like a vending machine, saying things like, “All I have to do is ‘name it and claim it’, and it’s mine, period. Like a vending machine, they put in a claim like a coin and out should come the candy bar of ALL their needs, and in some cases, all their GREEDS.

We all know that sometimes vending machines go “out of order.” In this case, God is not out of order, but the way we look at God is sometimes out of order. Let’s think in terms of order for a moment…

Could it be that before we can realize a promise, we must first understand a premise? Could it be that you can’t really own or experience Philippians 4:19 as real and true, until you’ve owned and obeyed the verses leading up to it? And could it be that many of the so-called “promises” of Scripture might be better thought of as principles? That—predicated on a premise a retuned “promise” is really the outworking of a principle?

The Outworking of Spiritual Principles

Spiritual Principle one: God is not obligated to meet anyone’s needs; but He’s obliged to, in response to our selflessness. “Obliged” in this sense means He’s “happy to bless us in kind and beyond” in response to our generosity. If we ever want to get past the “bless-me-club” view of God and move into a true, transcendent, experience of the life, bounty, and abundance of God, then we shouldn’t be afraid to ask ourselves tough questions. See, if we understand God as obliged, not obligated, we’ll look at God less like a sugar daddy and more like the One True God who invites us to imitate Him.

Spiritual Principle two: Giving is profitable. Now, this might sound selfish at first, but the heavenly incentives in the NT are true and real and there for a reason. Kind of like “frequent flier rewards, but better. Jesus talks about “treasures in heaven.” Take Philippians 4:17: Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. “Credited to your account” could also be rendered, accumulated interest. So it might read like this: Though I appreciate your gifts, what makes me happiest is the accumulated interest you will have. It’s Paul’s eternal perspective. That’s why I want to emphasize yet again: God wants giving for you.

Spiritual Principle three: Giving is an act of worship. Philippians 4:18: I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. This is a powerful expression of worship, why? It reflects the character and nature of God, and substantiates the reality of Christ living in you. God gave us the ultimate sacrifice in sending His own Son to die on the cross. When this becomes really real to a person, the power of sacrifice becomes evident and worship is triggered.

Spiritual Principle four: Generosity flows from the learned art of contentment. Contentment means my happiness isn’t dependent on circumstances. Happiness is based on happenings. But contentment is based on a divine relationship. Remember: “We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it.” When our babies were born, especially the girls, Lisa didn’t say, “Oh, look at the baby. She has beautiful diamond earrings on. And that watch is fabulous.” You brought nothing in and you won’t see a U-Haul behind your hearse. We take nothing out. Learning contentment is realizing that everything we have is on loan. “Well, I own my business, you know. It is mine.” No, you don’t. Well, I paid off my house, it’s mine. No it’s not. It’s a loan—one that can never really be paid off when you consider life more deeply; but we can make so-called payments, and these are simple acts of selfless generosity. This understanding makes contentment a no-brainer.

Paul learned and experienced the mystery of contentment. Contentment is a learned art that comes from putting God first and trusting Him most. He wasn’t into “when and then” thinking. A lot of us are into when and then thinking. You know: “When I get the job, then I will be happy.” “When I get the raise, then I will be happy.” “When I get the new Hummer, then I’ll be happy.” “When I get the house/spouse/blouse then I will be happy.” You soon find out that none of these things in themselves can make anyone happy. And that’s why the person who learns and experiences the mystery of contentment is truly wise.

Spiritual Principle five: Faith is to be practiced. This is more than that old cheesy saying, “Now faith is like a muscle; if you want it to grow, you have to exercise it!” While there may be some truth in that somewhere, I think faith is more mysterious than that. Faith is deep like love. Love has many forms and expressions; but the deepest of all is sacrifice. It’s the stuff the best novels and movies are made of; it’s the stuff life is made of—the best live ever is made of the finest ingredient known to mankind: Sacrificial love. Faith can be cultivated along those lines; the lines of sacrifice and—in earth eyes—irrational, perhaps even irresponsible, death-defying, disaster-flirting, acts of trust in God.

Take for instance this crazy-talk found in Proverbs 3: “Honor the Lord by giving Him the first part of all your income and He will fill your barns.” Give God your first and best, and He will multiply. Give God the first part of your day, spending time with Him; He will multiply your time. But all this is too backwards for earth-eyes.

Spiritual Principle six: When we trust God with our whole lives, He will entrust to us wholeness of life. It blows me away how people will trust God with their eternity but they won’t trust Him with their finances. People who are cheating on their taxes, or ripping off their boss, or saying whatever it takes to close the deal, or having an affair, or getting into irresponsible amounts of debt, and then are “claiming” Philippians 4:19, I’m sorry. Not only will it not work; it’s completely missing the point. The point is this: When we trust God with our whole lives, He will entrust to us wholeness of life.

We sat down together as a family last week and had our family conference about what we’d give to Growing Together. We read and discussed the Scripture passages in the family conference guide and really began to pray. After about 30 minutes, we pulled out the commitment card and started pouring over it as a family. We looked at the table on the back of the card and the kids were in awe at the numbers on the top of the table; they couldn’t believe that there were any people on earth who could ever give that much. I told then that there were plenty out there, it’s just that I don’t personally know any of them. They laughed. Then we directed our attention to the lower parts of the table, the rows that our family was more likely to fall into. Starting from the bottom, we discussed each row, and just what kind of sacrifice it would mean for us. After considering some of the bottom rows, the kids started saying, in an uncanny divine unison: “higher!” We’d discuss that next row and consider the ramifications. “Higher!” Next row up, “But this would mean giving up such and such…” “Higher! God can do it daddy! It’ll be an adventure.” I asked each of them how much money they had saved up, tucked away, and if they were still willing to say “higher” with such gusto when it was their money on the line. Turns out some of them were very good savers, and quite a collection of Benjamins! I welled up on the inside when they said what they would sacrifice. One of the parents told the other parent, I won’t say which, “Honey, I don’t know; maybe they’re getting carried away, wanting to give that much.” The other parent responded, “Let’s not quench the Spirit. Wouldn’t we be ripping our kids off if we start talking the language of reason and rationality?” We both agreed that we would not quench the Spirit. I thought it would be smart, in fact, to follow their examples of childlike love and faith and consider it godly wisdom—and was challenged to go yet higher.

On October 23rd, we gathered the church leaders together, put a plate of lasagna in front of them and then asked them to consider leading by example in the arena of giving. 29 leaders responded and the result was nearly 140k in 2-year commitments with 43k of that being initial offerings. 90 signed up to serve and more people are praying. So we are on our way to the goal: everyone pray/serve/give. Overall, this campaign has been good for the spiritual life of C3.