Your Part to Play in the Kingdom Economy of God - Louie Giglio

It's not just a giving window, a generosity window at our church. Above and beyond is the spirit of the gospel. And it comes down into practical terms for us in this little window of time every year and actually through the entire year. Some people gave into above and beyond today. That last Sunday, the Sunday before that, the Sunday before that. But it's a time where we give above what we normally give. Now there's a big assumption in that. The assumption is that we're normally giving. But we give above what we normally give so that we can go beyond where we normally go. I think a great way to illustrate the heart of above and beyond is in this parable that Jesus told found in Luke 10. It's the parable that I think probably everyone in here, at least knows part of this story. It's where we get the term good Samaritan. The parable of the good Samaritan. I know it's very familiar, but I want us to see it and let it be a backdrop for us today as we think about the kingdom economy of God. It says on one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Well, what is written in the law, he replied. In other words, you're looking back at the Old Testament now. What does it say in the Old Testament

about the question that you're raising? How do you read it? And he said, "Well, I think," and the guy answers well. He says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, "with all your soul, with all your strength, "and with all your mind." And because we know Jesus taught us this, love your neighbor as yourself. Now Jesus had answered a question when it was posed to him, what's the greatest commandment? This is what he said, love God. That's the greatest commandment. Oh, and there's a second commandment like it, love your neighbor as yourself. On these commandments, all the law and all the prophets, everything that has been revealed to us, all of it hinges on these things. Love God, love your neighbor. And so Jesus says you've answered correctly. But then the guy, verse 29, wanted to justify himself. So he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Now can you see yourself in this setting? We ask out a question, he gives us an answer. We try to get him to slice it up a little bit thinner. We try to get it right down to the, okay, give me, crystallize it down to the very, very core thing so I can make sure I do that thing. Instead of saying, "I got it, and I wanna live in the spirit "of it," this guy said, "Can you make it as specific as possible?" And so Jesus told this story.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. So he's only got half to go. We don't know how long he's got. A priest happened to be going down the same road. And when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So to a Levite, so now we got a priest and a Levite. These religious leaders, when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, a guy who's, you know, not even really welcome in this particular part of the world. As he traveled, he came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. Let's remember that word today. And he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day, so he spends the night there, the next day he takes out two denari, two days' wages, and he gives them to the inn caper, and he says, "Look after him." And when I return, I'll reimburse you, another key word to remember, for any extra expense you may have. In other words, I think I've got it set up, but I don't know how long the guy's gonna need to recover.

I don't know how long he's gonna be here. I don't know what else you're gonna need to do to help him, but whatever you do, just keep tab of it. And when I get back, I'll pay you back for everything. And then Jesus asked the question, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor "to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him. And Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise." That's the spirit of above and beyond. And it's the way the kingdom of God works. The kingdom of God, this building churches, read a verse in the language of their heart, feeding people who are starving, lifting the poor, giving them an opportunity to advance in life, to get an education, to move forward and to have a family, to have a place to live. All of these things require that the kingdom economy is working well. And the kingdom economy works like this. God gives us the opportunity to step into the story and to be a conduit for his provision for the people of earth. That's how the kingdom economy of God works. And he's inviting you today. I want to preach a little bit today. I probably will because I'm real fired up. But I want to mostly pastor today. I want to lead us well today. I want to lead you today. I want to break this down as much as possible from rooms full of thousands of people down to you today. And I want you to know today that God is inviting you to participate in the kingdom economy. It's the greatest thing you could ever do in terms of resource in this world in the world to come. We said it last week. Jesus was giving us last week the best financial advice we're ever going to get. You could be on a first name basis with, you know, any big fund manager in the world. And you're not going to get any better financial advice than what Jesus is already giving us. And he's inviting you in. You know, we said last week in the middle of the talk, I said, I believe, I really felt strongly last week that we all are going to remember that message in eternity. And I said, and I think for some of us, it's going to

be that we're going to be the saddest people. And for others of us, we're going to be the happiest people. And I got some immediate feedback and someone was telling me, you know, Revelation 21, he'll wipe away every tear from our eyes. There won't be any more sickness. There won't be any more sorrow. There won't be any more death in heaven. So we're not going to be sad in heaven. And I was like, yeah, I'm kind of see where you're coming from. So I tweaked from 9/30 to this 11/45 gathering. And I said, I think some of us are going to remember this talk in heaven, and we're going to have regret. Because it's just, it takes away that are we sad or not. Because regret in heaven, it's got to be there. What we don't, all of a sudden, have amnesia the moment we arrive in heaven. And we don't forget the way we lived our lives. And we don't forget or have consciousness of the fact that our family member isn't there. And they're eternally separated from us and God. I think I might revisit the question. Do you think there's any sadness in heaven? Obviously it's joy, obviously it's splendor. Obviously we're face to face with Jesus. Obviously it's an eternity of life with a river that flows. But surely when we look around at what God has done, and where He has placed us for eternity, we have some consciousness of the fact that when we lived on earth, we lived in such a way that we left it all behind. And none of it arrived with us to domino into the kingdom work of God that lasts forever. He's inviting us today to be this man. He's inviting us today to go and do likewise. He's inviting us today to participate in the kingdom economy. Because God cared about this guy. God wanted to help this guy. But the way that God could help this guy was that somebody came along that said, "I will put my resources into the kingdom economy of God." I'll put my money into the story. I think that's just a phenomenal thought. And I want us to look at the way the proverb writer says it in Proverbs 19. This is wisdom. If we're looking for wisdom today, this is it. What a thought. Two different translations. ESV says this, "Whoever is generous," remember this Samaritan. "Whoever is generous to the poor, and we he is now, 'cause they stole all this stuff. But we see a different word. Whoever's generous, whoever's pity, whoever's generous to the poor, can you just look at that, the rest of that sentence

for a minute, this blew me up. Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord. Man, I was hoping that might get something. I got a hallelujah. Thank you. Hallelujah. Where the hallelujah. But man, I was hoping that would blow us up. Whoever is generous to the poor, lends loans to God. I mean, I know you don't mean that, and I know that it's just you having pity on poor me. And he will repay him for his deed. New King James Version, he who has pity on the poor, lends to the Lord, and he will pay back what he has given. So before we champion Good Samaritan, which we do want to applaud him, more so we want to be him, but before we really champion him, let's remember that he will pay back what he has given us. He will pay back what he has given us. Let's remember that he's getting it all back. Whatever the tab was at the end, he's getting that back. Because God has already said whoever has pity on the poor, they're actually making the funds available to me, and let's don't get bogged down in the semantics today. They're loaning me the money. You're like, you can't loan God. Money God owns everything. I don't know.

I thought it said lens, but maybe it didn't say lens. Maybe it didn't mean lens. Don't get lost in the semantics today. God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills. We know that from scripture. He owns the earth and everything that is in it. All of that we see in the Psalms. The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it is the Lord's. But somehow we've got to come to understand today that the earth that's the Lord's might be your plot of land. And the cattle on 1,000 hills might be in your pasture. And for God to activate the cow, and activate the land, and activate mercy, and activate compassion, he needs the Samaritan man to say, I'm willing to loan what I've got to the kingdom economy of God. You own it, but I'll loan it. You own it, but I'll loan it. You gave it, but I'll loan it. The reason I have it is because you bless me, but I'll loan it to you. So that you don't have to drop dollar bills out of the clouds, I'll take mine out. Can you drop dollar bills out of the clouds? 100%. Can God just put 1,000 bucks in somebody's mailbox? Of course he can. I bet he has. No, I don't mean by some kind of person who came by, just put the money in the mailbox.

I'm sure God can put money in the mailbox. I'm sure he can put food in the pantry. I'm sure he can build a house all by himself, but he doesn't normally do that. He normally asks if anybody would be willing to loan him a hundred dollars. That's what he asked of all three of these people coming down this road. First religious guy, he not only doesn't stop, he goes across the road. Why? Because he is religious and this guy is in trouble. And if he gets involved, he ceremonially now is not clean. And so he's got a whole predicament. Time, energy, investment, don't have time to bother with all that. Next guy comes by. Very bad guy, but I don't have time to go. He comes by, very religious person, but he goes on the other side of the road because he can't get involved with all this uncleanness and get all defiled and have to deal with all that. So God sends two people who are not willing to loan to him, to lend it to him, to be available to him, to be a conduit for him, in bad shape. I will have pity on you. And I will, by doing so, loan to the Lord. What I thought. Just carry that around for a couple days. You and I can lend to God. You say we're not lending to God, Louis, because he gave it to us in the first place. I know. But it says lend. What a thought. And it all comes out of what God has done for us. In the kingdom economy of God, I had a debt. And you had a debt that I couldn't pay. Amen. No matter

how much money you have, you could be a billionaire. You cannot pay off the debt of your sin. You could try with all your good efforts for the rest of your life. You cannot pay off the debt of your sin. You and I had, in the kingdom economy of God, a debt that we could not pay. Amen. Anybody with me here? This is real life. You can't do anything to pay this debt. We are dead in our sins. And we're unable, because we don't have the right currency, which is righteousness currency, to pay the debt. You couldn't even have died for your sin, because you were already dead in your sin. Hello? If you had said, I understand the wages of sin is death, so I'm willing to die. You couldn't have done that, because you were already spiritually dead. We need a live person. And only one live person has ever been born. Same with Jesus. So He's the only person who had the right currency, which is righteous life, who could be paid for sinners like me. And in the kingdom economy of God, God said, I got you. I got you. I have a way to pay this debt. And He did. And now in that same spirit, we are rising up and saying, and I would like to pay you back. Now again, don't get tripped up in the semantics of this talk today. You're like, we can't pay him back. How can you pay God back? Jesus Christ. You can't. But you can live a life that says, I want to be available in this kingdom economy where you paid what I couldn't pay. I want to be available so that you have currency, earthly currency, to help people in life, to build the church, to make a way, to take the gospel, to take the Scripture, to see the world come to life, come to see this Jericho man raise up to his feet again, and give him a hope and a future. This is how the kingdom economy of God works. And please forgive me for making the caveat. I'm just trying to head off a lot of, I would say, probably not helpful discussion later. If we don't loan to the Lord, people die. If the Samaritan man didn't stop, he's already half dead. He ain't got long. And we all need to sit in the tension of this. That God is watching people die today because somebody didn't loan to the Lord. That's tension. I can't resolve that tension in five minutes today. I'm like, well, why doesn't God just rain down bread in the desert? Why don't these inched all of a sudden make soup appear out of nowhere. Why doesn't all of a sudden this Well, I'm sure sometimes they do. We read about it in the Word of God. We read about a woman who had a tiny bit of oil and a little small amount of flour, and

somehow by faith it just kept multiplying and multiplying and multiplying. God can do that. But it's not what he normally does. He normally uses a person who's caught up in the flywheel of the payment that was made for them that they couldn't pay. And now they're caught up into that same slipstream and they're making their resources available as a loan to God so that the Jericho man can be healed. What a thought. At the heart of above and beyond by the way, just we'll talk about a few specifics and then we'll wrap. But apparently the Samaritan man had some extra. And I don't know that when he left that morning he thought, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to run into a guy that's half dead and I'm glad I got a couple extra genari and whatever it's going to take for however long his recovery takes, I'm glad I've got that." I budgeted for that when we did the finances this week when our family sat down and said, "Hey, we need to make sure we got money in here for the Jericho road man." No, he didn't know he was going to see this guy on the Jericho road. He didn't know this was his day. He didn't know what was going to happen. He didn't know that we're going to be cost involved. He just knew that there was a need and somehow he had prepared in the above and beyond spirit for what that need was. And that's what we're doing in this season as well. We don't know what all the needs are. We don't know where the Jericho man is coming into the story this year. We're going to be ready when they do. I love it. Part of above and beyond helps us build our churches strong so that we can be ready for

the Jericho man. Some of it is going to help a college student go to passion. Some of it is going to help us do two passion events and two stadiums which cost more than the registration is going to cover by a long shot. Some of it is going to help us keep resourcing people through a quip, people all over the world who have free access to all the resources of passion as they grow in their faith. It's going to help us touch down Lord willing in Japan. Again, we've already been there a few months ago, but it's going to help us touch down there and shine the light of Jesus and encourage the church that he's building there. It's going to help us plant churches. It's going to help us do a lot of things, but some of the things it's going to do, this above and beyond giving, it's going to help the Jericho man. It is going to be a part of seeing and helping the needy and the poor and caring for them. We have three local partners this year and the names of them are right here behind me. In vision Atlanta, amazing work with refugees in our city, a healing bridge on the south side, a free clinic providing medical care to families who don't have insurance, don't have money and don't have the opportunity to have the care that they need amazing work. And then must ministries, a partner that we've had for many, many years, three great organizations in Atlanta and a part of every dollar that we give into above and beyond is going to these organizations. Why? Because we see the Jericho man and we want to be one of those who have pity on the needy and therefore lend to the Lord. We have three global partners that are doing the same thing around the world. Convoy of Hope is there when people's homes are blown away. 821 is putting traffickers in jail, having them prosecuted and put in prison and freeing men, women and children and bringing them through restoration to live a free and prosperous life again. And illuminations as we all know because we're so connected as a church is taking the scripture into every part of the world translating it into the heart language of people who've never

read one verse of scripture in their heart language. And these partners, every one of them, is going to receive a part of every dollar we give because we want to believe in the wisdom writer, whoever's generous to the poor or the needy your translation may say, lends to the Lord. Let me make a couple of observations and we're going to close and celebrate baptism across our church today. Number one observation is that we want to make sure that we are seeing people and showing mercy in the same way that we were seen by God and shown mercy. [BLANK_AUDIO] saw the good Samaritan. I was the guy in the ditch. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and sin had done a number on me, and not left me half dead, left me dead on the side of the road. I saw me in this story, and I saw Jesus coming down the Jericho road. I saw him bandaging me. I saw him putting me on his donkey. I saw him taking me to the inn. I'm saying him paying the bill. I'm saying him making it possible that by his stripes I am healed. I am restored. I am brought back to life again. I was the guy in the ditch. Therefore I want to be the kind of person who sees the man in the ditch. I don't want to have just all the focus on me. I want to realize that I have been seen, and I have been shown mercy. I want to see, and I want to show mercy as a lifestyle. Not as a couple times a year thing, but I want to have that mentality as a lifestyle. The second takeaway, and we already alluded to it, but let me just come around it a different way, that this kingdom banking plan is God's gift to you and me to keep us from losing everything.

So I don't know if there's sadness in heaven. I don't know if there's regret in heaven. Well, Paul said it this way. He was talking about building up things on earth, and you could add not being rich toward God. Look at what he says. He says in verse 12, this is 1st Corinthians 3. If anyone builds on this foundation, the foundation which is Jesus Christ, he says in the verse above, using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, their work will be shown for what it is. So he's giving us a contrast. You can use the good stuff to build, or you can build with wood, hay, or straw. But what you need to know is, is what he goes on to say, that their work will be shown for what it is, because the day, now we're just saying here at 5.15, that there is a day coming, that Christ is coming. There's a day coming, and that's what Paul's referring to. There is going to be a day, and the day will bring it to light. What will it bring to light? It will bring the composition of our lives to light. In other words, it may look great to everybody on earth, but it might be a movie set that's only a foot deck, and there's two by fours holding it up on the other side. But there's a day coming. And here is how it's going to be revealed. It's going to be revealed with fire. And the fire will test the quality of each person's work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. The payback for the loan. If it is burned up our whole world of all the stuff we had, the builder will suffer loss, look at this interesting phrase, but yet will be saved, even though only is one escaping through the flames.

I don't think it's a stretch to say Paul saying, "You could be saved by the skin of your teeth," and that all you built in life, all your stuff, all your money, all your investments, all of what you thought was incredible and impressive, all of it on entry into heaven was incinerated on entry. And you arrived, just nothing else. I don't know if there's sadness in heaven, but I don't think you want to be saved escaping through the flames. And Jesus is inviting you into this kingdom economy to keep us from being that guy. And he's saying, "Hey, I need your help here." Technically doesn't need our help, he's Almighty God. But if this guy's going to get bandaged and helped, I need your help. If the people starving around the world today are not going to die, I need your help. Will somebody help me? Will anyone loan to me? has set up, and by virtue of you saying yes, I'm saving you from losing everything." A third takeaway that I think this good Samaritan is helping me see is, and I don't know how he did it, but I know how I do it, he fought cynicism. I have to think that at some point he thought, "What if this guy, what if he deserved to get jumped? I don't know what happened. Oh, it wouldn't here. What if I get him to the end?" And then the innkeeper says, "Oh, man, this guy's got money. And when he comes back, I want to have a bill for him, all right. Man, you're not going to believe what I had to get. I had to go back to town and get this, and I had to spend that, and I had to call in a doctor, and whoo, here's the cost, and how's this guy know if it's real or not? He could have been cynical right then and there. And I think the spirit of cynicism, in some part, I understand why it's in our world because there's a lot of stuff wrong in our world.

But you and I cannot let the spirit of cynicism keep us from being the good Samaritan. You cannot let it creep in to our hearts and into our minds. Yes, do due diligence on who you give to. Yes, seek discernment and wise counsel when you're investing in someone who's feeding the poor around the world or building houses for the poor or setting the captive free. Yes, be wise. But at the end of the day, you and I can't control where every penny ends up and how it all works. So don't be foolish, but don't be cynical either. My first job was Assistant Youth Pastor, First Baptist Atlanta. I think I've shared this story a bunch of times. And so we're between 4th and 5th Street on Peachtree in the 1970s when that part of town was rough. I mean, just abandoned buildings everywhere. It was a low ab for that part of town. We get in our building without buzzing, you know, somebody at the security desk. Back door parking lot, chapel parking lot. Those are the two main ways you could get in and my office was super close to the chapel parking lot door. And when someone buzzed it, which they did multiple times a day that didn't look, you know, presentable, my phone would ring because I was the low man on the totem pole and they be like, hey, yeah, you need to go out the chapel door and take care of this guy. Talk to him. So I'd go out and I'd be sitting there with a homeless person who was maybe anebriated. And we'd sit and talk. And I would listen. And I learned really quickly that, you know, these guys were, they were kind of going from church to church to church to church to church. And they, they were really good at getting saved, being repentant, tears, the whole thing. And I was like, oh my gosh, I just led this guy to the Lord.

And then he, two weeks later, you know, somebody else on our team led him to the Lord. And so we had to learn how, how do I care for the Jericho man? And for me it was, I don't have money, but I'll take you to lunch. Sometimes they took me up on that. I'm not going to buy you a bus ticket to Montgomery, but I will drive you to Montgomery. And one time the guy took me up on that. But after a while, I realized the spirit of the cynic was right here. But the spirit of the gospel was in here. And I believe God is big enough that I can trust Him with my money. Even if I don't know if the innkeeper is going to do it right. And I don't know if this guy is even going to thank me. It doesn't matter. I got the gospel engine working in here. And I want to say yes, if God needs a loan, I want to be a yes. And then lastly, I closed with this, and I already said this as well. But to be prepared, you have to create margin. And I know we've said this so many times, but I just would urge us again. The earthly model is to be maxed. And if we're tapped out on this card, well, we'll get another one. And whether we intentionally ever say it or not, it's just, we're maxed. The heavenly model is margin. It's to start out with the mindset that says, "I don't want to be leveraged, I want to be available." So I can't be maxed, I have to create margin. And my financial goal is margin. Why? So that when I come down the Jericho road and see the man, I don't say, "Man, I feel terrible for you, but I'm maxed."

I say, "I feel terrible for you." And thank God, I've got margin. And so I want to encourage you. You know, in this above and beyond season, some of you will not give. You do not need to give in this above and beyond season. Some of you prayed about it, and God said, "No, it's not your time." Great, we respect that. Some of your finances are upside down in your max and there is no above and beyond. There is no margin, there's nothing to give. And please don't give them. Do not go in debt to give into above and beyond. Ask God to give you wisdom, to get your finances in order, maybe that takes a year, maybe that takes five years, but start down that road. We'll help you for free. (gentle music) Some of you had a job change or an employment situation recently that you didn't see coming, and this isn't, you're above and beyond season. And we need to be sensitive, all of us in your community to be like, "We're here for you." In this season that you found yourself in, we're here for you. You don't need to give into above and beyond. (gentle music) But you do need to start over again with a new mentality that says, "When God does provide,

"I want to resist maxed, "and I want to start preparing for margin, "so that when I run across the Jericho man, "I could buy him a car. "I could buy him a house. (gentle music) "I could help his kid go to college. "I could pay off his medical bill. "Thank God I got what it takes "to be in the kingdom economy of God." And good news, and I know it's not the reason why, but when we paid off their medical bill, we're getting that back. (gentle music) In the heavenly economy, with interest, and we'll be happy in heaven. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]