Jesus gives us generous hearts
Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin?
| Speaker: | Andy Moyle, |
| Series: | God's Multicoloured Wisdom |
| Date: | 11th Oct, 2026 |
| Download: | Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin? |
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| Sermon notes: | Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin?Pendulum Swing We have been looking at God’s multicoloured wisdom - where God shows off his amazing diverse multicoloured wisdom to the angels and demons through what he is doing through the church. Your life has meaning and purpose – you are part of a cosmic plan that God has! Started with creation – in all its diversity created by God who personifies diversity in unity – Father, Son and Spirit Then we looked at the Fall – where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and experienced shame, guilt and fear. God made a sacrifice to clothe them with the first leather outfits! Then we began to see God’s rescue plan for the whole of humanity start through God call one person – Abraham to be blessed so that through his offspring every family would get the chance to be blessed. God often chooses one to be bless many. He has chosen you too! Now we jump forward hundreds of years – the Old Testament people of God, Israel are being formed. They have escaped slavery in Egypt and they are about to receive the ten commandments – and the rest of the Law. But before that God tells them these amazing words. Exodus 19:5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Condition – Obey God fully and keep my covenant.They are about to get the law – not just 10 commandments. Jewish scholars counted 613 separate commands. They are there to show how holy God is and how much we need Jesus to save us. King Solomon tells us in Eccl 7:20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. Paul will teach the purpose of the law was to bring us to Christ – Gal 3:24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith They had been saved by grace from slavery but still the Old Covenant was conditional on obedience first. Ex 19:5 again IF you obey me… then out all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Treasured PossessionIf your house was to catch fire and everyone was safe and you could grab one thing, what would it be? That’s your treasured possession. The Hebrew word is sagula which means shut up treasure – the kind of treasure that is highly prized and kept safe. That’s who the people of God are to the Lord. Then from that identity as God’s treasured possession, they are called to be a Kingdom of Priests Kingdom of PriestsA priest is someone who mediates people to the Lord. Their job as a blessed people was to show that blessing to all the families of the earth – to carry on Abraham’s call. Mal 2:7 says for the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord almighty and the people seek instruction from his mouth. Holy NationGod is Holy and commands his people to be holy. The command “Be holy, for I am holy” is all over the Bible! Lev 11:45 I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy. Two sides of a coin – the edge says treasured possession. That is their identity. One side is be a kingdom of priests. Make a difference in the nations, influence them and bless them so that they follow god. The other side is Holy nation – be holy. Don’t compromise with sin. They were meant to hold it in tension – be in the world but not of it. But OT Israel and actually anyone without Jesus just cannot do it. It ends up being a pendulum swing of making a mess Instead of kingdom of priests – influencing the nations. End up with anything goes, doing the awful things the unbelievers were doing. Then they’d swing the other way again missing the point. Holy nation – despising the other nations and being completely nationalistic. Or separating themselves. Even today – you can see religion in general and “religious” people making a mess of the pendulum swing. In the world and doing what they do – anything goes, chaotic lifestyles, liberalism – making Christianity wishy washy but palatable. Swinging the other way – Christian ghetto, avoiding the world, holy huddle, leagalism. Paul warns against that in 1 Cor 5:10 “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” That’s a great example of two sided coin – be in the world, but don’t be like the world. The call to live out being a treasured possession by being a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation is impossible in our own strength. The law was mean to point us to Jesus. Christianity has a new covenant, a new deal – a better deal. 1 Peter 2 lays out the ideas of what treasure possession, kingdom of priests and a holy nation look like with Jesus But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but not you have received mercy. If you have become a Christian, Peter declares like Jesus you are born again – a new creation and we have been give a precious identity – chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, God’s special possession. God has done it- he has made us the people of God and has given us with mercy. Our destiny is not the pendulum swing of messing it up – we can live as the double sided coin – treasured possession round the edge – kingdom of priests and holy nation as the two sides, We can do it. You may be thinking, no I can’t I swing from one extreme to the other! What’s the secret sauce? A few verses before Peter shows us As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Living StonesPeter is writing to people who were mostly Jewish background before fining Christ, so they would have had Old Testament understanding of what that means. Centuries before Jesus came Ezekiel was prophecying to a wayward pendulum swinging Israel and he says this “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” God showed Ezekiel that without Jesus people are stony – cold and hard and unable to follow and obey Jesus. The promise he prophecied is that God would remove peoples dead stony hearts and give them a new heart. In Ezek 36 he repeats it – “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Peter picks up the imagery of that and shows that Christians are now living stones – we have the Spirit in us, making us so alive. Spiritual houseThen he talks about us being built together into a “spiritual house” to be a holy priesthood. A spiritual house is literally a house of the spirit. Together we are the house where the Spirit of God dwells. We need each other – you can’t go it alone in Christian faith – the devil will pick you off straight away. The secret sauce that makes the two-sided coin doable – is the power of the Spirit available to all of us and the church being the place where we are built together. New Covenant is incredible. The law of 613 commandments is impossible, nobody apart from Jesus has completely obeyed. So, Jesus came to bring us close to God Eph 2:14-15 “For he himself is our peace who has made the two groups on and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations” The Law was just a schoolmaster or guardian to shows us we need Christ. Now grace has fully come and we find that we can be more holy than the law demanded by enjoying God’s grace and walking in the power of the Spirit. The law said don’t commit adultery – grace says don’t even think adulterous thoughts. Titus 2:13 tells us “grace teaches us to say no to unrighteousness” It is walking in the Spirit that enables us to be holy and make a difference. Gal 5:16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. It is the Spirit that gives us power to be witnesses Act 1:8 It is the Spirit who grows the fruit of holiness in us Gal 5:22 It is our experience of being living stones – filled with the Spirit and built together as God’s church that means we finally get to enjoy living our new identity But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. If your life feels like a chaotic pendulum swing – God wants to turn you into a two-sided coin! Come to Jesus Be filled with the Spirit Be built together |
Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin?
Andy Moyle,11th Oct, 2026 3:04 pm
The Call of Abraham
David Taylor27th Sep, 2026 9:11 am
The Fall
Omadachi Oganyi,20th Sep, 2026 3:10 pm
The Trinity and Creation
Swapnil Pardeshi13th Sep, 2026 5:59 pm
God's multicoloured wisdom
Andy Moyle6th Sep, 2026 7:36 pm
Grace transforms us in so many ways – the start is forgiven, but there is so much more.
Last week we saw the result of grateful hearts – did you write the letter?
This week look at generosity
Amazed at the special offering for Newday – just over £2k. Means that 15 young people are going. Pray for huge breakthroughs and changed lives
Average christian gives 3x as much as non-churchgoers
Bible believing Christians give on average 11.5% of income
More about attitude than amount
i) Grudge giving – “I have to” – like when have to pay for a parking ticket
ii) Duty giving This is giving that says “I ought to.” This is how we give to the electric company. It's a bill.
iii) Thanks giving Thanksgiving says, “I want to.” It is with this kind of attitude like a young man who saves several months of income, buys an engagement ring, and then gives it with great joy and enthusiasm. So how do we view God? Is He like the traffic warden? The electric company? Or is He the object of our love and desire?
2 Cor 9:7 God loves a cheerful giver
Look at key passage for today Phil 4:14-20
v14 Share together
When Paul wrote Philippians it was a thank you letter. He'd seen first hand how they were sharing together in what he was going through, through their giving.
In v15 he calls it Partnership – not just sharing in the burden financially but it becomes a partnership. Your giving is a stake in lives getting transformed here among us and in the cities of Europe where we are partnering with Relational Mission to see churches planted.
People generally give to vision. That's why the emotional Telethon videos get money. You are not just seeing the need, but someone is casting a vision to tug your heart to respond with your cash, cards or cheqes.
In v16 Paul talks about how his Needs have been met again and again – it's a sign of how the Philippians have caught hold his vision and are partnering with him to make sure his needs are met.
Twice in verses 14-16, Paul uses the word “share” in this encouragement. In English we can't see it but there is a special word buried in the Greek construction that you may have heard before. “Koinonia,” the partnership of believers in the common cause of Christ. As Paul saw it, generosity was inseparable from their Christian relationships. Jesus gave them generous hearts and that was a means of Christian fellowship.
His needs were their needs. They felt his needs and responded to them. His suffering did not go unnoticed but touched them deeply so that they fellowshipped in his need.
We see this principle expressed in other parts of the Bible as well. John wrote, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:16-18).
The next thing is that giving without expecting something back is means of eternal investment. Paul expresses this in the next verse: “Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account” (4:17).
v17 Giving is an eternal investment
Randy Alcorn “You can't take it with you so send it on ahead”
It's like the story of the sailor who was shipwrecked on a South Sea island. He was seized by the natives who carried him to their village and set him on a crude throne. They treated him as royalty. Soon he learned that their custom was once each year to make a man king, king for a year. He thought this was a pretty good deal until he started wondering what happened to all the former kings after their year was up. He found out that after the year, the king was banished to a deserted island where he starved to death. That worried him, but he was a smart king, so he put his carpenters to work making boats and his gardeners to work transplanting fruit trees and other crops to the island where he would be banished. His carpenters built a nice home there. So when his year was over, he was banished, not to a barren island, but to an island of abundance
Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:19-21).
v18 fragrant act of worship
Next Paul uses OT worship language of “fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable”
After the Flood, Noah offered a burnt offering to the Lord in Genesis 8:21 and we read that “The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man…'” The burnt offering expresses obedience and dedication to God and God delights in this. So Paul takes that imagery and applies it to Christians taking note of Christian needs and generously sacrificing to meet those needs. For God, our giving, sacrificial giving, is the burnt offering, a sweet aroma to the Lord.
Then in v19 we see big returns
And my God will supply every need of your according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
My God – Paul personalises this.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is my God
The God of Moses is my God
The God who went with Joshua around Jericho is my God
The God who defeated Goliath is my God
The God of the prophets is my God
The God of the virgin birth is my God
The God who raise Jesus from the dead is my God.
He is my God, you God
He will meet all your needs. Anything you need, he will provide! You cannot outlive God.
When I've struggled financially, I've not been giving generously. Giving again has been the way out. I'll never forget when this church was having bit of financial crisis, one of our Trustees Andy Richards said you need to give your way out of this mess. So we started, small at first, but increasing. Now our giving is 8% of our expenditure budget for this year – and that is not enough! We will look to grow it.
The principle is you reap what you sow. God has a way of giving by the cartloads to those who give away by shovelfuls.—Charles Spurgeon
Where to be generous?
i) Church
The church is the hope of the whole world. We are on a mission to be a gateway for the gospel to goto the nations. For us that means we are a multi cultural church, passionately pursuing God, drawing people in, sending people out resulting in church planting in the region and the re-evangelisation of Northern Europe.
We haven't even scratched the surface of that yet, just getting started in fact.
Mission and ministry cost money. This year the budget is just under £90,000 which will cover me full time, Mike & Sarah part time and Kerry who cleans the offices wonderfully. The pie chart shows that staffing is your biggest cost followed by premises, giving out and ministry.
ii) People in need – wisdom money or food, bus tickets
A second area to be generous is with individuals in need. I was challenged by a friend who never passes a homeless person without buying them some food or a drink. Never give money – it gets spent on drugs or alcohol. Homeless charities cite figures of 70% tested for class A drugs. You might say it's only a few pence, but Thamesreach a London based homeless charity says Giving to people who beg is not a benign act without consequences. As an organisation that has worked with people on the street for early thirty years, we have seen many lives damaged by hard drugs and alcohol misuse. We have even lost people through overdoses in situations where a significant portion of the money they spent on drugs came from members of the public giving loose change.
Tossing a few coins in the hat is a guilt assuage, not generosity. Stopping, having a short conversation and asking if they want something to eat or drink and then getting it – is generosity with time and money. Some of you excel at this so much.
iii) Charities and organisations
There will be ministries and charities that are close to your heart that you can support, go for it!
Why not?
Why don't some have generous hearts?
Obliviousness
For whatever reason, you may have never even thought about giving away your money regularly. It never occurred to you that this is part of worship. Perhaps one of the 10 commandments “Thou shalt not steal.” is the mantra. Good start. But now God is calling you to hear the New Testament command. Not just: Don't take what's not yours, but give what is yours. “Contribute to the needs of the saints.” “Let him who contributes do so generously.” Don't be oblivious anymore.
Carelessness
Perhaps we are not oblivious. We know this is what people who love Christ do. But we just never seem to get around to planning how much and when and where to give. Things just slide. God has appointed this message to bring you to a critical new place in your walk with him this week. Don't be careless. Be thoughtful. Be intentional.
Greed
The desire to keep more than we need. The spirit of greed groans when it gives. It thinks of all the things we could buy if we didn't give. The biblical alternative to this is not disciplined groaning. The alternative is a new heart and the joy of being free from the bondage of greed. It's the glad experience that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). Don't live in the bondage of greed. Be free.
Fear
that we won't have what we need. Fear is the flip side of greed. Greed focuses on what we don't have but would like to have. Fear focuses on the consequences of not having what we need to have. The answer to greed is the pleasure of Christ'spresence. The answer to fear is the certainty of Christ's promise. Don't live in fear. Be satisfied with Christ, and trust his promises.
How to break free into generosity
Grasp the riches of God's grace
Pray and Plan it! – Arnold Bell “How much do we get keep this year?” First year he did that, they set an outrageous target, more than met it and ended up being able to buy their first new car too!
In 1 Cor 16:2 Paul suggests weekly planning, because most people were paid weekly! On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
Do it!
Easy to be full of good intentions, but careless in practice. Do it today – grab a giving leaflet in the welcome display. Check out the website to give online. But do it today. Pray, plan and do it! It's a lot of fun, being a blessing, sowing and reaping.
