Life on the West Side
Life on the West Side
The God Who Is Generous
What do you do when you don’t feel like you have enough? Life begins to look like what happens in musical chairs when the music ends. People begin to live from a condition of scarcity. Living from paycheck to paycheck is hard enough; but when you have no idea when—or if—your job will start up again, it can be sheer panic.
That’s not only true when it comes to money. What does it look like spiritually to live from a condition of scarcity? It makes it very hard to love others, or even love yourself, when love seems so scarce. It means forgiveness is scarce; acceptance is scarce. When you think what you have is yours, and is about to be taken away, we grab and claw, with tooth, nail, and pitchforks. It’s defense all around. And its winner take all.
But how would we be different—how relaxed would we feel, how open would we be, if we didn’t operate from a condition of scarcity, but rather, from great abundance? What if we had more than we could possibly imagine, and an ever-flowing stream with bread enough and to spare? What if we saw people in terms of God’s greatest hopes rather than our worst fears; what would it look like to be the people of unlimited generosity?
It would look like the kingdom of God.
The sermon today is titled "The God Who Is Generous." It is the fourth installment in our "Good and Beautiful God" Series. The Scripture reading is from Jonah 3:9-4:4. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on September 11, 2022. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Begin: A Good God.
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