What is Church?

What is Church?

Dave Riddle - 6/09/2024

Key Passages: Acts 2:42-44, 2 Corinthians 8:1-5

“There is no relationship with God apart from His family”

Consumerism is about:

- satisfaction

- Entitlement

- More for me

- Obsession

- Devouring

- We think WE are doing the devouring, but instead IT devours us.

Community is about:

- being on mission

- Responsibility

- Serving others

- Freedom

- Creating

Partnership

- God desires for you to be an active partner, not a passive observer.

- 2 Corinthians 8:23

- Philippians 1:4-5

- Hebrews 10:33

- Philemon 17

- Acts 2:42-44

- koinos: “All things in common” = common; shared by all our several

- koinonos: associate, comrade, companion, sharer, partner

- koinonia: fellowship, association, joint participation, communion, community, the state one has in something, partnership

The mindset of partnership

- 2 Corinthians 8:1-5

- melos: being a living part of an interconnected body/dynamic body.

- Romans 12 & 1 Corinthians 12

- a partner is someone who is engaged with the organization’s mission

What is our focus?

- Privilege or responsibility?

- Get or give?

- Passive or active involvement?

How?

- Philippians 2:3-5

- Love, unity, humility, a common mission…

- A family on mission

Joyful Generosity

House Rules - Joyful Generosity 

Dave Riddle - 11/20/2022

Key Passage: Mark 12:41-44

Joyful Generosity 

Recognizing that all we have is a gift from God and learning to share what we have.

God Gave

• God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son. John 3:16

  • Jesus is the embodiment of generosity.

Generous: A readiness to give more of something that what is expected 

Jesus Gave Willingly

• John 10:18

Jesus Gave Joyfully

• Hebrews 12:2

Jesus Gave Purposefully

• 1 Peter 3:18

Jesus Gave Sacrificially

• Philippians 2:6-8

Our Generosity Should Be a Reflection of God

• John 13:34

Generosity is An Attack On a Would-Be “King”

• Matthew 6:24

  • Money = mamōnas (μαμωνᾶς) - Mammon - everything we pursue in life. Riches, treasures, dreams, feelings, idols. Everything that isn’t God.

  • Consumerism vs Generosity

Five Resources to be Generous With 

• Physical Capital

• Intellectual Capital

• Relational Capital

• Spiritual Capital

• Financial Capital

An Example of Generosity 

• 2 Corinthians 8:1-9

• 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

Spiritual Astigmatism

Message begins around 34:00

Spiritual Astigmatism 

Dave Riddle - 8/21/22

Key Passage: Matthew 6:22-23

“Eyes are the windows to the soul” - Shakespeare… or Cicero… or someone else

 “The eye is the lamp of the body” - Jesus in Matthew 6:22a

“The Evil Eye”

• Matthew 6:23

• A concept found in many world cultures and elsewhere in the Bible

  • Deuteronomy 28:54, 56

  • Proverbs 28:22

• A person who lacks generosity. A person who looks out for their own self-interest. Narcissistic, self-consumed.

• Matthew 20:15 - literally translated “is your eye evil because I am good?”.

The Single Eye (Healthy Eye)

• Matthew 6:22

• haplous (ἁπλοῦς) - simple, single, whole

  • haplos: bountifully, liberally

    • See James 1:5

  • haplotes: singleness. Subjective Meaning: sincerity, without pretense or self-interest), or Objective Meaning: generosity.

    • See 2 Corinthians 8:2