Making a Generous Response to the Lord

1. Making a Generous Response to the Lord 8th Feb 2009

2. Outline • Background and introduction • God needs us? • Making a generous response • Conclusion

3. Background and Introduction • The 2nd of three talks looking at the key SoS prophecies • Chance for personal reflection: what is the Lord saying to us, to me • What am I doing about it? i) “ I tell you that I cannot do with you what I intend to do with you until you have given me more than you have yet given. I tell you that I cannot accomplish what I intend to accomplish through you, until you abandon more than you have yet abandoned.” ii) The Lord says. “I have called you to reach out. You say you are poor but you are rich. You say you are small but you have great resources. You say you are weak but I have given you many gifts. I have not given you riches to make you comfortable but to equip you to reach out. Do what I have called you to do.” iii) “Now I want you to step out, risk everything for me, your Father in heaven knowing that I will take care of you, and you will see the glory of God in your midst.” • “Making a Generous Response to the Lord”

4. Background and Introduction The 2nd of three talks looking at the key SoS prophecies Chance for personal reflection: what is the Lord saying to us and to me What am I doing about it? i) “ I tell you that I cannot do with you what I intend to do with you until you have given me more than you have yet given. I tell you that I cannot accomplish what I intend to accomplish through you, until you abandon more than you have yet abandoned.” ii) The Lord says. “I have called you to reach out. You say you are poor but you are rich. You say you are small but you have great resources. You say you are weak but I have given you many gifts. I have not given you riches to make you comfortable but to equip you to reach out. Do what I have called you to do.” iii) “Now I want you to step out, risk everything for me, your Father in heaven knowing that I will take care of you, and you will see the glory of God in your midst.” • There is a dependency upon us • God is asking for a response

5. God Uses People • God’s servant Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 25:8-10) • Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: "Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon," declares the LORD… • Luke 1:26-38 • “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

6. “God asks man to consent. He does not simply dispose things as he wishes through his own power. In this creature, man, he has created a free being to stand over against him, and he now has need of the freedom of this creature, that his Kingdom may truly come to be, that Kingdom which is based, not upon external power, but upon freedom." Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

7. God Uses People • Why does God use people, and therefore use us? • Because He is building His kingdom, and that is a kingdom of “Choice”, of “Freedom” and “Love” • And you and I have a “Free-Choice” to build this kingdom of love • Examples… • …how are we going to respond?

8. Part 2: Making a Response "...until you abandon more than you have yet abandoned" "...I have not given you riches to make you comfortable but to equip you to reach out. Do what I have called you to do" "Now I want you to step out, risk everything for me, your Father in heaven knowing that I will take care of you"

9. How to you make a generous response? • Ps 116:12 "What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?" • NIV "How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me?" • Rm 11:35 "Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?" • The Psalmist sees this problem (Ps 40; 50) • 1 Sam 15:22 But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” • Ps 51:16 “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.”

10. Christ is our Sacrifice • Christ is the only sacrifice of any significance • We need to EMPTY OURSELVES and be filled with Christ • Then the sacrifice we offer is Christ • Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Eph 5:2; 2Co 2:15)

11. Emptying Ourselves • What does this mean? • Abraham & Isaac (Gen 22:1-19) • We are Isaac • Aqedah from the Midrash

12. When they reached the place, Abraham built the altar and laid the wood upon it. Yishaq, knowing he was to be the sacrifice, helped his father to prepare it. Abraham then bound his son to place him upon the altar. Yishaq requested his father to take the remaining ashes and give them to his mother Sarah, "But please do not tell her of this while she is near a well or a high place", he added, "lest she throw herself off because of me, and die". Upon hearing this Abraham cried exceedingly, as did his son, till Yishaq requested him not to delay what the Al-mighty had commanded him to do. With that Abraham placed him upon the altar and stretched forth his hand to slay his son. http://www.midrash.org/halakha/aqedah.html

13. Emptying Ourselves • The knowledge: “We are the sacrifice” • The sacrifice doesn’t dictate the terms! • Joyfully, not grudgingly • Self-giving, not self-protective • Full of faith, not full of fear • Not possessive about what we "offer", not concerned about who we are or what we are offering, but rather caught up in who we are offering to • Example: • The Rich Young Man (Mat 19:16-22; Mk 10:17-22)

14. Rich Young Man (Mk 10:17-22) • 1st Table vs 2nd table • Love of God • He couldn’t “empty himself” fully • There were things holding him back • Is that you? Is that me? • What is “your possession”

15. For His Glory Sometimes, like today, I feel my own littleness; How small I am, how big the world, how great you are. I look at what I do from day to day, I'm struck by it's insignificance. In this routine of life I find I'm lost, So small, doing small things in this great world. What hope have I to make a change, to leave a mark? What hope to reach out, touch, the sick and poor? What difference do I make with what I do? But then  I remember, Lord, all that you do. Your love for me, the Cross, your Spirit's work. And the road you've set for me, in which I walk, In which I stumble, once again, in your pursuit. Let this be my offering, my worship to you. With every breath, on every day, in all I do, My Lord, this sacrifice, my life, small as it is, I come and place it at your feet. Please take this which I offer, all I bring Transform it, Father, use it as you please. By: Ana Teresa Perrem

16. Emptying Ourselves • Again, the example of Christ: • Philippians 2:6-8 “who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”

17. Conclusion • God has a role for us in his plan • Not because of our greatness but because of His • Not for our glory but for His • We need to get out of the way: this is the generous response! • Our response is not so much to offer ourselves as if God needs them (look how great we are, how God needs my talents etc…) but we are Isaac, dying to be replaced by Christ, emptying ourselves so that Christ acts