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Challenged and almost quenched by scandal, money is a topic that is taboo to most preachers, yet being generous not only with our love, but with our money is in the DNA of the church.

The early church was amazingly different than the pagan culture around it.  One way in particular was with money.  Pagans were known to be very stingy with their money, while the early Christians were known to be very generous with their money.

“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need…they had favor with all the people.” (Acts 2:44, 47)

Even while persecuting the early church, the Roman Emperor Julian, said this about early church:

“Why do we not observe that it is the Christians’ benevolence to strangers, their care for the graves of the dead, and the pretended holiness of their lives that have done most to decrease atheism. For it is disgraceful that Christians support not only their own poor but ours as well, and all men see that our people lack aid from us.”

Being generous with money is in the DNA of every successful church since the first century.  Look back over the history of any church that God has blessed and you’ll find a clear track record of financial generosity.  Whether it was paying tithe to establish and maintain the ministry, or sending money to foreign fields, or raising money to build a new facility, or taking special offerings to help a family in need, the people were open-handed with their money. 

We need to be aware that what those who have gone before us have given, and what we give now, lives on.  Money placed at the apostle’s feet…a basket handed out in a tent meeting…offering plates passed down the pews of a huge sanctuary…the hitting of the “send” button to complete an online gift, all connect us together to something much bigger than ourselves individually, and will live on long after were gone.

“There is no fear in love dread does not exist, but full-grown complete, perfect loveturns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fearbrings with it the thought of punishment, and so he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection.” (1 Jn 4:18, AMP)

There’s a great movie from the 80’s called, “My Body Guard.”  It’s a story of a teenaged boy named Clifford Peache who moves to Chicago and begins getting harassed by bullies.  He couldn’t walk the halls at school.  He couldn’t walk home from school.  He couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without being hassled.

After weeks of living in fear, a big kid named Ricky befriends Clifford.  From then on, every time the bullies confront Clifford, Ricky emerges and stands right behind him.  The bullies soon figure out not to mess with either of them. 

Fear will paralyze you.  Fear will keep you from living the life you were called to live.  Fear will send your dreams to bed.  And, most often the fear you feel is because you’ve chosen to believe a lie. 

When Adam was hiding in fear from God because he was naked, God asked him, “Who told you were naked?”  Fear is not a lack of faith, but misplaced faith.

The greatest antidote to fear isn’t protection, but perspective. Gehazi was cowering in fear as the enemy surrounded them. Elisha prayed, “LORD, open his eyes and let him see”. Gehazi took another look, but this time saw the forces of God surrounding the enemy and far outnumbering them.

God didn’t send Jesus to throw in the towel and call off all your fights. God sent Jesus to step into the ring and fight your battles.  You don’t have to fear anything or anyone.  He’s standing right next you.  Show fear the door!

In 1999, the NFL added an instant replay system to review questionable calls when a coach challenges the call. Each team is allotted two challenges per game. When a play is challenged, the referee has 90 seconds to review the play. He reviews the play at a field-level monitor to the side of the field. Then the call is made,

“Upon further review the ruling on the field is…”

The play is either confirmed, or overruled.

Israel knew what it was like to have a bad call made on them that seemed irreversible.

“We’re nothing but a joke to our neighbors, graffiti scrawled on the city walls.” (Psalm 79:4, The Message)

But Israel learned that although most of the messes they found themselves in were their fault, they could call on God; and unlike the pagan gods, their God had ears, eyes, and voice that could overrule any decision. situation, or opponent they were facing. They learned that He could turn their mourning into dancing.

God has been doing this forever. When people’s lives seem to have been irreversibly altered by the plays and strategies of the devil. When there seems to be no way out, and defeat inevitable, God declares on the loud system of the universe, “Upon further review, the ruling on the earth has been overruled by heaven!”

He’d never been in church before.  After the service, he was introduced to me.  I asked him what he thought about the experience.  “It was very special,” he said.  I could see his eyes were getting a little watery.  I felt the Holy Spirit.

“Have you ever invited God into your life?” I asked him.  He shook his head no.  I looked at him and smiled, “Would you like to?”  After a pause, he said, “I don’t think so.  I’ve got a lot of things in my life that I need to set straight.”

This young man’s reaction is similar to stuff you and I do.

What’s God promised you? Think about it. What kind of things has God told you that he was going to do?  As time goes by and detours take place in our lives, we start to doubt if that thing God told us will happen.

We don’t necessarily blame God.  We blame ourselves.  And this is where the similarities with the young man mentioned above start. We believe there is something wrong with us.  We haven’t prayed enough, read the bible enough, or gone to church enough.  There’s things we need to get straight, first.

I love the premise of show The Voice.  Contestants come out and sing as the judges face the opposite way.  If the judge likes what they hear, they hit the big red button and their chair turns around.  By doing this, the judge is signaling that they are impressed with what they have heard and want the person to come onto their team.

What’s so awesome about God is that he hit the button for us to be on his team without us doing anything.  In fact, in spite of us doing anything.  We don’t have to proof anything, or try to qualify beforehand. 

Back to the young man.  He thanked me and begin to walk off.  I caught him and said, “You don’t have to do anything, but just invite Jesus into your life.”  I asked if he would pray with me.  He did.  It was the coolest thing ever!

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So if you’re trying to get things straight, hoping to finally make the mark for God’s promise to be fulfilled, cancel the audition…you’ve got the part!

There’s a movie called Bruce Almighty, where the main character, played by Jim Carrey, actually becomes God. There’s some pretty funny bits, and some sobering ones too. In one scene Carrey starts hearing all the prayers of everyone on earth. He tries several ways of dealing with it and fails. He then sets up a system of answering the prayers online. It goes okay at first, but by the time he finishes answering the first few million prayers, there’s millions of new ones.

This is how I started feeling yesterday.

I had posted on twitter and Facebook that I was preparing a message about forgiveness, and wanted to know what was the hardest thing people had to forgive. Within minutes I was getting messages and responses.

Dozens. And they were agonizing. Heartbreaking.

Over and over again people wrote things like, “I was violated.” “I was abused.” “I was molested.” “I was betrayed.” “I was abandoned.” “I was cheated.” “I was heartbroken.” My eyes filled with tears. I tried to write everyone back with some kind of encouraging words, but it was almost overwhelming.

I began to think of how God’s heart must break as he sees and hears all these kinds of things that have happened to people. However, unlike me and Bruce Almighty, God is never overwhelmed.

God is amazing in that he forgives, heals and restores the fractures, offenses, wounds, hurts, and brokenness in our lives, not matter how severe or how abundant. He can handle it! It’s this aspect of God’s power and character, his grace and his mercy, that makes us love him and want to worship him.

But God doesn’t stop there. He expects the same thing from us.

“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

The way God has forgiven us of the wrongful and hurtful things we’ve done to others, he expects us to do likewise to those who have wronged us. This may seem impossible and even unfair; but it’s the only way we can to truly be healed and released from the hurt. The same grace that flowed from God to us will flow through us to heal what others have done to us.