Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 I've mentioned this before, and if you've kinda more recent in our church, you wouldn't have heard me say this because I don't speak about it all the time. But I have of late rarely become fascinated in our Judaic roots as Christians, Christians, or followers of Jesus believers in the way of Jesus. We have to appreciate from where Jesus came into what Jesus was born and how was it applicable to us. And Jesus was a Jew. He was born into the people of Israel, the Jewish nation and the Jewish na nation have a very particular place in our Bibles, in the ways of God. And so I am fascinated by what that journey was and what we can learn from it. And so in speaking about that, the time of the year in our calendars is a significant time in the Jewish calendar. We are in a time now where a particular festival is about to be celebrated, A feast, The Feast of Tabernacles, um, and it's also known as ccu. Okay?
Speaker 1 00:01:27 And there's a lot in there as to how it could be applicable to us. And what I love about ccu, we were in Jerusalem three years ago, four years ago, I forget, but we were in Jerusalem at the time of this festival. And what I was naive too, was how much of a party that it was like it was Rockus, honestly, it was just beautifully crazy. And the atmosphere, the festivities, the celebration around it, of all three of the festivals, ook is the one that has the most celebration around it. And so it's meant to be fun and festive and feasting and celebration. There's something very particular in what circuit celebrates that I felt to spend some time on teaching. Okay, I'm gonna start in this passage of scripture one Timothy. So write this down. It's not gonna come up on the screen, but write this down.
Speaker 1 00:02:30 Take note. Obviously you can listen to the podcast or watch the video afterwards as well. One Timothy six, and I'm gonna read from verse six to 10, and then also from verse 17. This is what it says, But godliness with contentment is great game for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. It's bit heavy. I appreciate verse 10. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wondered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Let's jump to verse 17. This is Paul talking to Timothy who really was a protege of him, Somebody who he was mentoring, discipling and entrusting to carry responsibility and leadership in the context of church.
Speaker 1 00:03:56 He says this to Timothy, verse 17, Command those who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant, nor to put their trust or hope in wealth, which is so uncertain. Isn't that the truth? The wealth of the world, the circumstances of the world if, uh, you haven't already seen? We live in pretty uncertain times, but Timothy encourage people to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. And it's that last little statement that I want to explore. Open up, go on a journey on over the next few weeks, speaking of the God who provides, put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. And I even like that statement for our enjoyment. So cut the Festival of Tabernacles. It is a celebration, but this is what it is primarily celebrating. The context was the journey of the people of God from being enslaved in Egypt, to being liberated by God through Moses, then going on a journey through the wilderness to the promises of God.
Speaker 1 00:05:34 And you can see that as a beautiful picture for us. Even now that we were oppressed or held captive to sin, Egypt from a metaphor perspective, we were liberated by Christ, not by Moses. And now we are on a journey to fulfill a promise that God has for us. But we are still on that journey. Yes, justified, yes, rescued, yes saved, but now on this journey to the ultimate fulfillment, at the end of times we will arrive in their promise. But circuit is to celebrate the journey in the wilderness. And it was to celebrate this, it was to remind people of the temporary nature of life that their time in the wilderness was temporary. It wasn't permanent. This life that we live in this time is temporary. It's not permanent. However, there is an eternity to come and it's important for us to live from that perspective.
Speaker 1 00:06:48 The other thing that it was trying to highlight was that even while they were in the wilderness, God was present with them. The tabernacle, the um, physical structure that God had instructed them to create was God residing with his people. The the term used often is that God tabac with his people, that his physical presence was within even while they were in the wilderness. So circumstantially, everything wasn't perfect. They were liberated. They were on a journey to a promise. But that in between time had some challenges. It was filled with uncertainty. It was filled with the harshness of the desert. And yet in the midst God resides with people, with his people whom we are, that. But not only is it celebrating that God was present with his people, it is also to remember, to remind, to celebrate that God cares for his people. And it was most seen in his provision. That's where the care of God was seen or evidenced. That even though they found themselves circumstantially in a desert, in a harsh environment, in uncertainty, i, in, in a place that they were unaware of how to bring about certain aspects of their life that they needed to fulfill God present with them, caring, evidenced in him, providing.
Speaker 1 00:08:42 And that is the God that we serve. We serve a God who provides provision, essentially speaks of God's supply provision, is God providing what we need? You think about the journey that we are on and um, often what can come at us. I put something on my social media this week. I had a beautiful SMS from my friends at the bank. Absa was so kind to send me notification that the interest rates have rise. And this wasn't to tell me that I was gonna be the benefit of some great cash interest rise on my savings. This was simply to let me know that because the base rate of our interest has risen so too will your repayments on the loan that you have with us. Thank you very much. I mean, it's a beautiful message to get right, especially when you are, um, perhaps speaking of myself just a little bit too consumed with some social media platforms at the moment.
Speaker 1 00:10:02 Admittedly, I am on social media a little bit too much. I need to bring some balance with that. And I am still on Twitter. Some people are like, that is so historic. Are you even on Twitter? I mean, what is Twitter? You know? But I I'm on Twitter for a particular reason. Uh, I get a lot of my news through that means because it, it means that I can choose the sources by which I receive certain information and I try to be quite balanced in it. I I'm mindful of my biases, my political affiliations, my faith, all that kind of stuff. And I actually purposely try and get a broad spread to see where the real news lies somewhere in between. So I'm on Twitter to get my news. I'm on Twitter to get my sports results, uh, which I like. Um, and I have found of late that Twitter in particular, it's not the most positive environment, okay?
Speaker 1 00:11:00 Uh, there's not a lot of good news being shared on that social media platform. And it shares news from global events to local South African stuff as well. And so I am a little bit too immersed in this negativity, which is unfortunately a lot of reality as well. And then I get the message from Absa and I was woken up the other night at one 30 and I couldn't get back to sleep. And what woke me up was anxiety. It's what woke me up. Uh, I was trying to figure out our house situation with, with, uh, repayments on, on bonds. Uh, I was trying to figure out how to set up stuff with Eski, which it's not that straightforward for some reason. Um, and I was thinking of like utility bills and all this kind of stuff. And, and I, I, I couldn't get back to sleep. My mind was just full of anxiety.
Speaker 1 00:12:07 And it got me thinking along the lines of how does this fit in the context of my faith? How does this fit in the context of, of a god that I believe in, of biblical truths that I have learned, understood, have had to relearn and question and I come back to this truth of God being provider. So I wanted to explore that with you. I I wanted to go on that journey personally and I wanted to look at it with us. And so over the next couple of weeks, I am going to speak about things like a mindset of scarcity, which is a very real mindset that exists in our world. Scarcity is a powerful thing. And it is used time and time again to drive fear and therefore our behavior around it. When we live from a mindset that is more focused on the lack of the world and the scarcity that is perceived, it's amazing how it drives our behavior, our mental wellbeing, our view towards the world, and particularly our view towards God and our faith. I'm gonna speak about, uh, uh, mentality of scarcity, but in the same, I want to counter that with a more biblical narrative and perspective towards life, which is a mentality of abundance.
Speaker 1 00:13:48 They exist at the same time, scarcity and abundance. And it's amazing how powerful choosing to see in one way can lead us to certain ways of living and attract certain things into our life. I wanna speak about generosity. I wanna speak about the principle of generosity of how we serve not only an abundant God, but a generous God who calls us into a life of generosity. I wanna speak to us about what, uh, a book that I heard on a particular podcast being referenced to it being titled The Paradox of Generosity. Because generosity is often counterintuitive, particularly in a world that emphasizes accumulation, that we are successful if we accumulate, if, uh, there is a scarcity mentality and therefore we're driven by fear. What we need to do is accumulate and keep and safeguard where generosity is so counter to what that is. And that's what I love about generosity because actually generosity is one of the greatest kingdom attributes because the kingdom is counterintuitive. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. Oftentimes society or the world will think one way and God cause us to live another way. And there is a beautiful blessing in the power of generosity. But in five minutes, because we were finished by quarter past 10, just to set the context for what I want to be teaching and sharing, um, ultimately, what is the end goal of a message or teaching series like this? Well, it's the end goal of what every end goal should be. And essentially it is love.
Speaker 1 00:15:55 So in this series where I am going to be highlighting the provision of God, what I don't want to do is to bring into a spirit of more stuff, but lead us to a spirit of more love. Love from God, love for God, and love for each other. I mentioned earlier that we wanna become a church that is the essence of community. We also wanna become a church that is deeply formed by Jesus, that he is the one who is forming how we see things, who we are growing into being, that it is his teaching, his guidance, his spirit that is forming us and creating something of substance in us to navigate this journey that we are on. And Jesus has very particular ways and teachings around the provision of God. Over the next few weeks, we are gonna talk about money in church, we don't talk about money in our church a lot.
Speaker 1 00:17:11 If you're here for the first time or maybe you haven't been around for a while and you've turned up today, you're like, Well, obviously you guys do, we don't. Okay? Um, over the past year, we haven't actually ever taught on it significantly. We haven't taken time to really look at biblical principles and godly truths around this area of our life. We may have touched on it. We may have invited you to participate in bringing a tithe, bringing and offering, but it's important that we do take time to look at what the Bible says. And so if we even look at it from a yearly rhythm, we will come back to this once a year to really elaborate on it and get some deeper understanding. But the end goal is more love. That's the desire that we would be formed by love and therefore express his love. But I wanted to show you this one video and it sets the scene because over the next few weeks we are going to talk about blessing. We're going to talk about God's provision and everything else of what we've spoken about. But the Bible project is something that we've highlighted before. It is a great website to go onto. I love what the Bible project does. So cans, we're gonna show this six minute video and then I will conclude. Okay, <laugh>, Thanks. Cans
Speaker 2 00:18:38 Story of the Bible begins with God, bringing life out of darkness, ordering our beautiful world, and then blessing all of its creatures.
Speaker 3 00:18:46 Hold on. Blessing. That's one of those funny religious words.
Speaker 2 00:18:50 Yeah, right? People say a blessing over their meal or after they sneak,
Speaker 3 00:18:54 Or just a general way to say that things are going well
Speaker 2 00:18:57 For me. But in the Bible, a blessing is more specific. The first blessing in the Bible is when God and saying be fruitful and and fill the,
Speaker 3 00:19:07 So God's blessing is flourishing and multiplication
Speaker 2 00:19:10 Of life, right? It's when God shares his life producing ability with others. Next God gives humans an additional blessing that sets them apart from the animals. Not only are we one of God's creatures that can generate new life, we've also been appointed as God's representative image to rule and oversee this whole flourishing world on God's behalf.
Speaker 3 00:19:31 So part of our blessing is to take care of God's blessing for all
Speaker 2 00:19:34 Creation. And God wants us to rule while trusting in his abundance to eat from the tree of blessing. That is the tree of God's own eternal life.
Speaker 3 00:19:43 Now, there is another tree to eat from.
Speaker 2 00:19:46 Yes. And it represents this decision to try and seize abundance and life on our own terms. By our own wisdom.
Speaker 3 00:19:53 The humans encounter a deceptive creature who tricks them into eating from this other tree thinking it's a shortcut
Speaker 2 00:20:00 To blessing. And instead of blessing this a curse.
Speaker 3 00:20:04 A curse, You mean like a magic spell
Speaker 2 00:20:06 In the Bible, the curse is when God people over to the consequences, seizing our own blessing on our own terms. It's a curse of abundance, scarcity, the i fruit famine, I the alsos, that deceptive creature that fooled the humans saying that a human will come one day to destroy it, and that human will be born into a world of scarcity, where men and women and families and tribes are all locked in violent
Speaker 3 00:20:46 Conflict. If God's blessing is now covered with a curse, how can we flourish even more? How can we rule with God?
Speaker 2 00:20:53 Well, here, the biblical story takes an interesting turn. God chooses one couple, Abraham and Sarah, and God blesses them and says, they will become a huge family, be
Speaker 3 00:21:04 Fruitful and
Speaker 2 00:21:04 Multiply. And there's more. God says that his blessing on Abraham and his family is for this larger purpose, so that through them, God's blessing can go out to all of the nations.
Speaker 3 00:21:15 So what God's plan is to reverse the curse and restore the blessing by first blessing this one family, right?
Speaker 2 00:21:22 And this family does experience God's blessing. Even when they journey through times of danger and scarcity, They grow into this huge nation Israel,
Speaker 3 00:21:31 And God brings them to a mountain. It invites them to be his
Speaker 2 00:21:36 Representatives. Yes, God will bless Israel so that they can become a blessing to the nations. All they have to do is trust and live by God's wisdom. And they're told that this is a choice between life and death, between blessing and
Speaker 3 00:21:49 Curses. Now, keep reading because the Israelis almost never trust God for his blessing. For stories filled with tales of power in the exile from land and slavery to foreign.
Speaker 2 00:22:04 But Israel, through all of this, they still trusted in God's promise to Abraham. And they anticipated a future Israelite who would come to restore God's blessing and reverse the curse for Israel and for all of the nations.
Speaker 3 00:22:19 When we turned to the story of Jesus, we find Israel still experiencing the curse, living a slave to the Roman empire.
Speaker 2 00:22:25 But Jesus, he so trusted in God's blessing. He claimed that it was arriving in a new way through himself.
Speaker 3 00:22:33 He wanted his followers to trust in God's abundance, to share and be generous.
Speaker 2 00:22:39 And he even taught his followers to bless people who curse them. Jesus would even reverse the curse by healing and restoring people's bodies.
Speaker 3 00:22:47 God's blessing is being unleashed.
Speaker 2 00:22:49 Jesus also confronted his fellow Israelis who were in power, and he accused them of getting in the way of God's plan to bless Israel and the nations through
Speaker 3 00:22:58 Them. Those leaders arrest Jesus so they could have a kill.
Speaker 2 00:23:02 And instead of fighting back, Jesus believed that he was that chosen Israeli who would face the curse that Israel and all humanity deserves. And he would allow the curse to fall of
Speaker 3 00:23:14 Him. Jesus dies the shameful death of a man under the curse,
Speaker 2 00:23:18 But just as God brought life and blessing out of darkness in the beginning. So here through Jesus, God reverses death. By raising Jesus, the curse is put to death so that the blessing of God's life can spread out
Speaker 3 00:23:32 Once again after his resurrection, Jesus blessed his followers and he said that his presence be with God's, with
Speaker 2 00:23:43 And and the curse still have a hold on our world. Followers of Jesus. Trust that the power of God's blessing is even stronger. It means we can live with extreme generosity even when it seems like there's not enough. And that leads to the conclusion, the biblical story, where every nation is enjoying the gifts of God's abundance. Because in God's new world that is sustained by the life giving power of Jesus, there is no longer any curse.
Speaker 1 00:24:12 So you see this narrative playing out of God's intentions for blessing and fruitfulness from his abundance, mankind turning from God and therefore from the blessing and fruitfulness and abundance to now culminating in Jesus and him being the way to fruitfulness, blessing and abundance. And let me leave you with these two passages, John 15, Jesus speaking, I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit fruitfulness in Romans chapter four, Speaking of Abraham, which is also now speaking to us. Therefore, the promise comes by faith. Faith, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace, God's wisdom, God's power, God's abundance, and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring. And so as we journey now into the provision of God, the end goal is more love, but it is by His grace that we are going to book end everything of what this journey is, and to believe for his provision even while we might be in times of wilderness, in times of uncertainty, in times of the desert. Cool. Can I pray over us? Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your grace. I thank you that you are the God who provides. And so as we choose to open ourself up to this journey of looking to to gain understanding, but ultimately to grow in more love, trust, may your hand of favor and blessing rest upon us in Jesus name.
