Listen to the last verse: That you, being enriched in everything to all generosity, which works out thanksgiving to God through us. In other words, does God appreciate it when you say thank You to Him? Yes. Does He appreciate it more when you show you're thankful, by making other people's lives better? It's a heavier matter. There's one scripture, I didn't have it written down, it's just coming in my head now and there's so many of them. There are 2,106 to choose from. 1 John 3:16 - everybody knows John 3:16. 1 John 3:16 says this (give me some leeway to paraphrase this). He says: for let us not love in word only, but in word and in deed. For if any of you have material gain, let him share with those who have material need, for it is in this generosity that we can know we belong to God.
My question is this tonight. Do you want the kingdom to be established in your life? If you do, let me ask you a couple of questions: 1) do you know Him? Do you have a tzedakah spirit? 2) if you faced Jesus today would you be on the right or the left? Can you know that you're a part of this idea called the kingdom?
Here's a summary statement of Matthew 5:6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they'll be filled.
Here's the Shane Willard exegesis of it: The happiest people set their passions on meeting the needs of others. When someone lives to be generous to others, he's living for zekute; to show God's heart to restore all things back to his best. In that, God will determine that he shall be filled in his stomach as well as his spirit.
Do you know that in Matthew 5:6 it says: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they'll be filled? The word filled there is the word to fill your stomach. So in other words, Jesus is saying: happy is someone who chooses to meet the needs of the down-and-outer. Happy is someone who chooses to meet the needs of the poor and the afflicted. Happy is someone who chooses to enter into a righteous tzedakah spirit. Happy is someone who chooses to do that; and when they do that, they'll never have to worry about food in their own stomach ever, ever, ever - like His kingdom people.
So let's apply this with a few questions. It's not my place to tell you where you are, it's my place to ask.
1) Are you generous? I don't know if you are. Only you know if you are. Are you generous? Is your eye full of light? Is there any place in your life right now that you've turned your back on the needs of others? Is there any place in your life right now that you've told yourself it's not my problem? It IS your problem. Who else is going to handle it? The body of Christ is the hope of the whole world. It is our problem. It is our problem.
2) How have we defined righteousness that needs to change? Have you been guilty of defining righteousness by not doing certain things, and thereby fooling yourself into thinking I'm a righteous person; when in actuality, righteousness is defined by a heart condition, that hungers and thirsts to make other people's lives better?
3) Let me ask it a better way. You're saved right? You're saved? Now what?What are you going to do with that? You're on your way to heaven? Well good, you've got 50 more years to live. What are you going to do? Whose life are you going to make better? Where are you going to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the whole world?
I'm standing up here, now please hear my heart. I have left my guts on this stage tonight, trying to communicate this. Please understand my heart. I come to you with the most humblest of spirit right now, that we're all in a journey. We'll never arrive at this. There's no one righteous, no, not one. Why? Because we will never arrive at this. It's a constant daily thing, a choice to say: I, I will, I will hunger and thirst to make other people's lives better. It's about entering into something.
How can you believe God for seed? The Bible says God provides seeds to the sower. Listen to me, God provides seed to the sower, not to the hoarder. He is duty bound to provide seed for you. He is not duty-bound to provide fruit. He's only duty-bound to provide seed, and how you sow your seed determines your fruit. How can you believe God for seed? I'm telling you, whether it's your household or your church, or your organisation or whatever, if you begin to live by your seed, instead of by your fruit, the fruit will take care of itself.