Seminary Source

Operation World Changers

Chad Sykes — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:20:52 +0000

Generous Life | Operation World Changer from Generous Life on Vimeo.

Changing Your Mind About Money

Chad Sykes — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:11:59 +0000

1 Now concerning the ministry to the •saints, it is unnecessary for me to write to you. 2 For I know your eagerness, and I brag about you to the Macedonians: “Achaia has been prepared since last year,” and your zeal has stirred up most of them.3 But I sent the brothers so our boasting about you in the matter would not prove empty, and so you would be prepared just as I said. 4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, would be embarrassed in that situation.

5 Therefore I considered it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance the generous gift you promised, so that it will be ready as a gift and not as an extortion.6 Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each person should do as he has decided in his heart —not reluctantly or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. 9 As it is written:He scattered; He gave to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.10 Now the One who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

True Generosity

Chad Sykes — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:34:47 +0000

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God granted to the churches of Macedonia: 2 During a severe testing by affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed into the wealth of their generosity.3 I testify that, on their own, according to their ability and beyond their ability, 4 they begged us insistently for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the •saints, 5 and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves especially to the Lord, then to us by God’s will.6 So we urged Titus that just as he had begun, so he should also complete this grace to you. 7 Now as you excel in everything —faith, speech, knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love for us —excel also in this grace.8 I am not saying this as a command. Rather, by means of the diligence of others, I am testing the genuineness of your love. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though He was rich, for your sake He became poor, so that by His poverty you might become rich. 10 Now I am giving an opinion on this because it is profitable for you, who a year ago began not only to do something but also to desire it.11 But now finish the task as well, that just as there was eagerness to desire it, so there may also be a completion from what you have. 12 For if the eagerness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.13 It is not that there may be relief for others and hardship for you, but it is a question of equality — 14 at the present time your surplus is available for their need, so their abundance may also become available for our need, so there may be equality.

Jesus the Messiah: Financial Abolitionist

Chad Sykes — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:35:37 +0000

“…You can’t be slaves to both God and money.” Luke 16:13b (HCSB)

When the Pharisees heard Jesus say this, they scoffed at him. “What a joke,” they must have thought. “Doesn’t he know how the real world works?” Surely this carpenter deeply ingrained both in both the realms of business and contemporary Jewish society should know that money “makes the world go ‘round.” But what Luke reveals to us in his gospel is that the Pharisees scoffed at him not because he was ignorant, but because they were “lovers of money.”

I don’t know about you, but my temptation is to think to myself, “Those Pharisees! Here they go again getting it all wrong!” The problem is that this conclusion misses the point almost entirely. I could be mistaken, but I don’t think that God inspired Luke’s analysis only to show us how rotten and idolatrous the Pharisees were. Rather, I believe that Jesus’ words were a window into a fundamental flaw of our fallen nature: we all have the capacity to become slaves of money. That’s why Jesus gives us such an extreme warning in this passage that slavery to money is the path to hatred of God.

Jesus is saying that money is a real rival competing against God for our affections and attention. Money can so easily bring us under bondage if we don’t stand guard against it. Here’s what it looks like to be in financial bondage: being captivated or frequently overwhelmed by money matters. Making it, losing it, our lack of it, what we can buy with it, how much we’ll have, and on and on consume our thoughts. To be a lover of money doesn’t simply mean that we have affection for money, but that we’re devoted to it.

The Lord Jesus invites us to freedom from all bondage. He calls us to renew our minds and to order our life rightly under His lordship. We don’t ignore money or financial concerns. We view them through the lens of our union with Christ. We begin to freely believe that money does not “make our world go ‘round”, but that Christ upholds our very universe “by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3). He will accomplish what money can never truly do. He will provide, protect and meet our every need.