I’m Living Large // Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems (Part 4) – Pastor Charles Metcalf – Transformation Church

Introduction

Transformation Church is so glad you are here today.

Charles is so glad to be a part of a church that is literally making a difference in the world.

Sometimes we can get so familiar with church and with what God is doing that we forget it is an actual miracle.

Just like the children of Israel there was a time where they were in the desert and the thing that God blessed them with actually slowly became a thing they complained about.

What a shame for the blessing to somehow become a burden.

Charles believes that most of the time the enemy’s temptation is to be sitting in the very thing you prayed for (e.g. kids, marriage, car) and end up questioning it and asking God, “Where are You?”

Charles made a decision on the way to church to always be grateful no matter what.

Sometimes we are just ready for God’s word.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

So many of us wonder, “What is the will of God for my life?” This scripture simply says that this is the will of God for your life. Therefore, the will of God is to rejoice, pray, and be grateful for what you have.

Many times we complicate this. There is a reason God said, “If you don’t come to me like a child…” That is because children need to be taught.

Just be grateful.

Charles has three small children and sometimes needs encouragement raising them so when he sees other parents with their children he encourages them.

He overheard this mom tell her daughter that she has an opportunity to be grateful today and get to do things a lot of people don’t get to do. Then he overheard the holy spirit say the same to him.

This may sound intense but one of those things we should be grateful for is that we woke up today. Some people didn’t.

Sometimes we forget the regular stuff like that, but God saw it fit for you to wake up today.

Therefore, Charles is just grateful for the fact that he is here.

He loves the Transformation Church and the pastors there so much. Charles and the other pastors want to be a part of, and help lead, and build a church that they would want to come to but not because they are pastors there but because they really love TC.

Charles even prays that you are part of any church, but no matter what church you are a part of you should invite other people there so they can experience the greatness of it.

His prayer is that if you are not excited enough about church to invite others, then find a church that you are excited about, because God is not concerned with building a church. He is concerned with building THE church.

Find a church you are passionate about and you love.

Charles cannot get away from this grateful thing and loves TC that much…so much that it has changed him. He says, “I can’t not invite people to something that has changed me.”

During the pandemic, there was a moment Charles was thinking that he couldn’t do this anymore.

Maybe you’re finding yourself in a place where you think that you just can’t do this anymore, but remember that God loves you so much that Charles can’t even explain how much.

There are moments that, no matter how long you’ve been following Jesus, or how much you read your bible, or how much you’ve been praying, where you just need a reminder that God loves you and He sees you and He has a plan for your life!

You will live and not die!

Stand up and testify and say, “Devil you thought you had me! You thought you were going to take me out but I am still here!”
You can’t tell Charles that God is not real and he has decided every morning to remind himself, “It wasn’t always like this.”

God has been good!

Charles has two pieces of scripture he will be reading today. The first is:

Proverbs 11: 23-28 (Passion translation)
23 True lovers of God are filled with longings
for what is pleasing and good,
but the wicked can only expect doom.
24 Generosity brings prosperity,
but withholding from charity brings poverty.
25 Those who live to bless others
will have blessings heaped upon them,
and the one who pours out his life to pour out blessings
will be saturated with favor.
26 People will curse the businessman with no ethics,
but the one with a social conscience receives praise from all.
27 Living your life seeking what is good for others brings untold favor,
but those who wish evil for others will find it coming back on them.
28 Keep trusting in your riches and down you’ll go!
But the lovers of God rise up like flowers in the spring.
30 But a life lived loving God bears lasting fruit, for one who is truly wise wins souls.

Charles just had to read this scripture from Proverbs because it is so good. The next piece of scripture he will be reading is the parable of the good samaritan. Jesus is talking about how you should love your neighbor as yourself and a man walks up to Jesus and asks him to be clear of what a neighbor truly is. This scripture is in:

Luke 10: 30-37 NLT
30 Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. 31 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. 32 A Temple assistant[d] walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. 33 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. 34 Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. 35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins,[e] telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ 36 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. 37 The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Prayer:
Lord God we love you so much. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for caring about us. Thank you for being so intimately involved in the details of our lives. You are such a big God, yet you stoop low to concern yourself with things, honestly, that you don’t have to but you do it because of how much you care about us. Lord, I pray in these next few moments that Your word would bring peace, would bring clarity, and would bring insight. Lord, I’ll get out of the way so You can have Your way. In Jesus’ name I pray.
Amen

Charles tells a story about going to Disney World in 6th grade on a field trip. He was really short at this time and so insecure that he would stuff his shoes with 8-10 insoles. He got through most of the rides that he would otherwise be too short for but because of this the safety bar didn’t go all the way down to his lap. On one ride he was asked to remove his shoes. He said he had to use the bathroom and left. Then the teacher and another short kid asked him to come along for another ride so they got in the line for the It’s a Small World ride. Charles looked it up and found out that It’s a Small World After All is the most widely performed and translated song ever. He was really surprised. He realized the popularity of this ride and song reveals a subconscious principle of humans.

Therefore, this is… we love a small world.

What does this mean?

Okay we don’t actually love a small world…what we really love is control and the only way to control something that is out of your control is to make it smaller.

Therefore, we are so in love with a small world because we love control.

Just be honest…a lot of you love control.

We love to control what people think about us; we love to control our spouse; we even love to control our kids.

Because of our need for control, the only option is to make our world smaller.

You must understand that control is always an illusion. You know you are not always in control. Say to yourself…

I cannot control everything.

If you think about it, the world is out of control.

Many of us, because of our need for control, when you live in a small world, you have to make adjustments to an out of control world.

When he played basketball Charles’ hand was too small to palm a basketball so he would grab a girl’s ball when no one was looking.

Therefore, what many of us do in a desire for control is when no one is looking, you settle for something smaller.

1 – The Need for Control Always Makes You Settle for Something Smaller

What many of us do is our world will end up looking like we are palming a basketball.

You make your world a little smaller; you make your perspective smaller; you make how you think about people a little smaller.

The only problem with this is that you have had to sacrifice the size of your world to gain more control. You’ve had to sacrifice other people’s perception and other people’s views.

A small world is where the view is always stuck on you.

Charles never liked how regular basketballs made him feel, because other guys could do something that he could not do so he settled for something smaller.

Control will always have you settle for something smaller.

This is why some of you are in the relationships you are in because you couldn’t control the last one you were in so you settled for someone that you could control. The reason you are in that relationship is not because God told you to. Instead it is because you feel like you can control them.

The reason you go to the church you go to is because you feel like you can control this situation. If you do or don’t give tithes they will have to change something

In a means for control we continue to make our world smaller.

Control may not be wrong when it is within your world. The one thing you have to realize though, specifically Christians, is that do you know that God is out of your control?

In other words, you CANNOT control God!

He is infinite!

He is so beyond your control and many of us don’t realize it but not only do we try to control our world, but we try to control God.

In trying to gain control and make sense of your world, you not only end up making your world smaller but you also end up making God smaller.

How does Charles know that you’ve made God smaller? Because you compare Him to stuff that is not even in the same category.

Here is how we make God smaller…we think God is just a really good human.

That is how people usually think. That God is the kindest person ever.

God is nothing like humans! Scripture verifies this:

Isaiah 55:9
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Many of us don’t realize it but in a desire for control, you compare God to stuff and then compartmentalize Him so you can make sense of how big He is. What you don’t realize in this situation is you are settling for a small God.
Many of us can’t comprehend that God is justice and mercy so you just pick one because a God who is both doesn’t make sense.

“How does that fit into my box? You mean God loves people who murder and people who are kind?” …Yes He does.

You may have trouble comprehending that.

He doesn’t love people in jail any more or any less than he loves you and me.

Christians are famous for having a small world and a small God because a small God makes sense. A God who is just angry at bad people makes sense. A God who only likes certain people like me makes sense.

God is not here to make sense to you…He is here because He is God! He is here because He is sovereign. He is here because He is the one who put the stars into existence.

The bible says in:
Isaiah 66: 1
1 This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
Could you build me a temple as good as that?
Could you build me such a resting place?

He doesn’t think like you. He doesn’t think like me. Many of us, we don’t realize this but we’re living in such a small world with such a small view of God and the only way to maintain control is to keep making your world and your God smaller.

You think that if you don’t associate with a certain race or certain culture, then God must not associate with them either.

Really?

That’s not how God thinks. God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.”

You may also think that God loves you more than homosexuals. Do you think that is the bible or just your opinion because that is not what the bible says.

Another way we make God small is we think He rolls His eyes at people but God doesn’t get tired of people. You may think God gives up on people but He doesn’t. You think God changes just like you change but He is not subject to fickle emotions because He does not change.

God does not love you more than anybody else.

Charles came to challenge something that maybe isn’t talked about a lot in church. He came to challenge your view of the world because people may not realize but you live in a small world.

You’re living in a world where the view is always on you or always about what you want. It’s just a natural desire to maintain control. However, you don’t realize to maintain that control you have to eliminate other people’s perspective.

Charles gets a large blow up globe of the world and he has trouble holding it or controlling it…it is out of his control. When he sets it on the ground, he can see all the perspectives and details easier.

A view of the world that God loves me just as much as He loves you isn’t really convenient to what I am supposed to do.

Then Charles let out the air and he could control it better.

Then you think… that God does not like those types of people. He is not proud of them. They have done bad things so He doesn’t love you. You may think that God thinks that if you don’t pray a certain way or speak in tongues you won’t go to heaven.

However, what you are doing here is slowly making your world so small (Charles is scrunching up the globe as small as he can), that in the smaller world, you can control it. It may be awkward for you while you make your world smaller.

In this size of a world (deflated and folded up), it’s a lot easier to control but now it’s just your perspective.

There are whole parts of people you can’t see anymore. There are groups of people that God loves that you can’t see anymore. There may be family members crying out for your help that you don’t see anymore.There are certain celebrities on social media that you can make fun of because you don’t see them anymore.

Now you can control it but what did it cost you?

The story in Luke is a story with people in small worlds.

It says there is a jewish person traveling on a road from Jerusalem to Jericho. The moment he would have said this everybody would have known the road that Jesus was talking about. It’s a very dangerous road.

On this road the man got beat up and left for dead. When the pastor walked by him, his world was so small, and he had so many things that God had asked him to do that he didn’t have time to stop.

In today’s world a pastor may not stop for a homeless person asking for money, because he has a church service he is going to.

You may not realize it but your language reveals every single time that your world is so small that you do not see people as God’s infinite possession. Instead you just see them as someone you can talk about.

When the worship leader walked by he too passed the jewish man by. This may happen today if a worship leader walked by an injured man who wasn’t a race or denomination he doesn’t identify with.

These are Jesus followers?

Actually the church is famous for being like these two people.

People who are hurting and dying on the road, but the church is too busy and the world they live in is so small that they cannot see these people or see a good reason to help them.

Your need for control always kills compassion for others.

2 – The Need for Control Always Kills Compassion

Because you have to be so in control of every little thing, and so in control of how people perceive you, and so in control about what people say or don’t say about you, you may not realize it but you are folding up your world in a means for control just to say that you have control.

However, what you don’t know is that there are people on the other side of the world that need your compassion.

So many of us have condensed our world down to something that can fit in our hand. We have condensed our kids down to something we can hold on to. We have condensed the church down to something that makes sense to us and we have condensed God down to something that fits in my hand.

You don’t realize it but God was not made to fit in your box.

He is not an addition to your life. He is not something to be figured out in a textbook.

This is not the God that we serve.

The goal is for Him to be outside of your control because if He was in your control, that would mean that He was on your level and if he was on your level then He couldn’t do anything to save you to get you out of what you are in.

The whole point is not for God to be figured out. The goal is to serve a God who is so big and so large that you can come to Him with something that seems so ridiculous and to Him it’s so small.

The earth is His footstool. So many Christians get stuck comparing things in boxes so it will fit within our control and we don’t realize that the comparison is an insult to God.

It’s like the perspective that God uses when He says, “As far as the heavens are above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts.”

Charles knows that Lebron James can jump a lot higher than him. When they both would dunk on a goal, it would be obvious that Lebron could jump higher.

However, if the goal is to touch the moon, Lebron wouldn’t be able to jump much higher than Charles, because the goal and the comparison gives perspective to where they are.

Therefore, many of us are measuring our sins and measuring who are good people/bad people but God says, “I’m in the stars so whether you read your bible or you are on drugs, it’s really not that much of a difference because the goal is so grand and I am so much bigger.”

It’s not even worth being compared to.
Some of you may be noticing that Charles isn’t even talking about money. He read a scripture from Proverbs earlier. It says the world of the generous gets larger and larger and the world of the selfish (the ones who keep the view on them) gets smaller and smaller.

Therefore, the ones who are selfish, your world is actually biblical and a principle of the earth. When you keep the view on you, you will always live in a small world.

This is why our giving is so important.

The samaritan comes along and he has compassion and you will only give to someone if you first have compassion.

We cannot talk about money or tithes or offerings or all the things we will give as people. We can’t talk about not giving money but giving the things that are more important such as time and our wisdom.

Some of you who are in a successful career won’t even give away your ideas or hold your wisdom back so people will have to come to you for answers.

Therefore, people have to suffer because you are so unsure about your ideas but when you are generous your world gets larger.

What would it look like if christians had the biggest world view? Christians are not famous for having a wide world view. We are infamous for having the most narrow small minded perspective.

How is that possible when we serve a God who spoke stars into existence? It’s because of control… we want to control what people think, we want to control how life goes.

Charles gets it. He doesn’t like being out of control or even being controlled.

Control…we don’t like control.

Have you heard anyone say, “I’m livin’ large!”

3 – To Live Large You Have to Give Large

This is the perspective Charles wants to give today. This is the biblical perspective on living a large life.

Main Title: I’m Livin’ Large

I’m livin’ large today doesn’t mean in a financial way like you have more money than anyone else but instead that you are living in a world that is broader, and the view is not always stuck on you.

This is the goal of following Jesus. It’s for our life to be built on serving other people; for us to get outside of our small perspectives and our small ideas. When you give it takes the view off of you.

The only way to take the view off of yourself is to give to someone else.

Many of us don’t realize it but in your fear and withholding, you are actually continuing to make the world smaller and trying to control your finances.

This is what happened in the principle of the talents. He was afraid and wanted to be in control. He said to his Master, “I knew you were a harsh man so I buried it” his world got a whole lot smaller because he took everything that had been given to him and hid it. He could not even give it away.

Charles’ challenge today is to step into a large world where you can give away because God is your provider.

Your job is not your provider.

You can give away because you know that you serve the God that has an endless supply.

This is how we are supposed to live…in a world that sees people not as objects, not as things to just talk about but as God’s most important and prized possessions. This is what people are.

If we are going to talk how we love people we have to talk about how we give to people because you can say you love someone but if you don’t give to him/her Charles won’t believe you.

When was the last time you gave to somebody? Not somebody that you can get back something from.

When was the last time you gave love to someone who didn’t deserve it?

These are real things. Sometimes it’s almost easier to give money away than love. God wouldn’t ask you to give five dollars to a homeless person. He would ask you to get out of your car and pray for them.

What happens when generosity isn’t just throwing money at stuff but it’s actually being present with people.

Charles would rather serve a God that’s big enough to change the dark parts of his heart rather than him staying in control and staying the same.

If we’re going to live in a larger world we have to take the view off of ourselves.

4 – Three Ways to Take the View Off You

1. Tithing 2. Offerings 3. Sacrificial Offerings

Tithing – a biblical word that means giving the first 10% of our income back to God. The thing about tithing that Charles has to clarify is that you don’t give back to someone something that already belonged to him/her.

Returning what already belonged to someone is returning. It’s not being generous.

There is a difference between giving and generosity. Some of you may have been tithing your whole life but you’ve never been a generous person. The enemy will make you think because you tithe then you are generous.

Leviticus 27: 30
A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord.

The only context that tithing is ever referred to in scripture is returning and belonging already to the Lord. You can’t rob somebody if it doesn’t belong to them.

You may have been tithing your whole life but you’re not generous about it. Technically it belonged to God already so you just returned what was already His.

There is a difference between giving and being a generous person.

You can be tithing but not be loving, or kind to people, or be generous with your time.

If you are not tithing at all you should 100% start tithing.
God did not invent tithing because He needed a church to have money. He invented tithing as a way to give you an opportunity to trust him.

Tithing is a way to say that you trust God more than your job or how buying a nice pair of shoes will make you look.

It’s a chance to put God back in your life. It’s the first 10% that you return back to God and here is the thing about the tithe…

5 – Tithing Releases God’s Unseen Protection

This is why the tithe is so important. When you are born into the world, you were born into a world where it was raining…just go with it.

It’s raining hard things in life. It’s raining pain.

Because of Adam and Eve, in the garden when the world was broken; the system was broken and it started raining and many of us come into this world and we realize, obviously the world is hard.

However, when you tithe to God it releases His unseen protection. It gives God an opportunity to stand over you and cover you so this is the reason we tithe.

We need God’s protection in a fallen and broken world.

6 – Offerings is Anything Given to God or Someone in Need Above Your Tithe

In other words, anything passed your 10% of honoring God, anything above or more than that are offerings. This could be giving your time or generosity to someone or if God lays something on your heart to help someone.

This is where you step into generosity; a moment where you can be generous and give when God tells you to give.

The thing about offerings is:

7 – Offerings Release God’s Unlimited Provision

There is only provision when you first offer it to God.

The story in Luke 5, Jesus feeds the five thousand. They didn’t have food so Peter asked what they were going to do. They only had two fish and five loaves of bread.
Here is the picture: they offer it to God first. They don’t try to do the miracle by themselves. He only gives a portion of it back and then He asks them to give it to other people.

If you read the story, as they give it away, what was not enough continues to multiply. This is a picture of giving offerings. When you don’t have enough and you honor God first than many times, out of what is not enough, He will tell you to give to someone else.

This will test your heart and give you an opportunity to be more like Jesus.

This is an opportunity where He says, “Will you keep the view on you and your world small or will you see that as you give it away, I will do more with what you give away than with what you keep.”

It’s a beautiful picture when you give offerings when God lays it on your heart.

You do not have to be rich to be generous, because some people feel like, “I’ll be really generous when I get a lot of money.”

If you’re not generous with $5.00 you will not be generous when you get $5 million. That is not how it works.

You can be generous wherever you are!

Charles tells a story about everytime him and his wife Abby have given a car away, God has always provided them with another car…and not because they have a lot of money.

Maybe you are young in your stage of life but you can make a decision with what you have right now to be generous and as you offer it, God’s unlimited provision and unlimited supply (when you offer it to Him first) He always provides.

Charles is saying that right where you are and whatever you have you can be generous with what you have.

Even kids can give away something they own to other kids at school…something that they have admired. Kids can start being generous now.

Your world will get a lot larger when you start giving.

The third way to take the view off of you is:

Sacrificial Offerings
These offerings are the ones that hurt. It feels like getting the wind knocked out of you to give away a sacrificial offering.

8 – Offerings Release God’s Unexpected Promises

A picture of this in Genesis 22 is about Abraham who is often referred to as the Father of our Faith.

Abraham and his wife Sarah are old and God promised them a son. When Sarah heard this she laughed. God comes through like He always does.

Abraham had to wait 24 years.

What would happen if God did it but it took longer than you expected? Would God still be good? Yes!

God stands outside of time so this is another way we try to control God. You may be upset that God didn’t answer your prayer in the time that you wanted.

The scripture says that one day in heaven is like a thousand days on earth so God is not bound by time!

God can see all of history, all of the present, and all of the future at the same time!

Therefore when God says He will come through for you, He is not saying it from the same perspective as you.

Time is a way in which we try to make God smaller.

In the bible, He promised you that you would be a blessing but it may be years later for you.

As with God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, sacrificial offerings always happen in your heart before they show up in your hand.

A sacrifice is always a decision from your heart before you do it with your hands.

Right as Abraham is about to kill his son a ram appears…an unexpected promise from God…because he had already decided in his heart to sacrifice his son.

For some of you, the sacrifice that God is asking for is something He gave you in the first place.

God gave you the time you have so when He asks you to give it to someone else He is really just asking for something that He already gave you.

When you give sacrificially, it always, always releases God’s unexpected promises.

These are really just three opportunities to take the view off of ourselves so the last point Charles has for you is…

9 – Your World Gets Larger At Every Level

The reason it’s important to give and be generous is because you realize that your world gets larger.

Your view of people, your view of God, your love, your compassion will get larger.

Remember…control is one of those things that always kills our compassion.

Charles’ prayer is that the person that is laying on the side of the road wouldn’t have to watch believers pass by.

This is on a lot of social media right now…the world watching…as believers pass by.

Sometimes the distance between people maybe that we do not know, it kind of creates this false confidence and almost like this disconnectedness that causes us to be so rude to people sometimes.

There may be celebrities that you think are weird or crazy but you know God made them right? God doesn’t love you more than them. He died for them too.

We may forget sometimes that celebrities or even family we don’t see…they are real people just like you.

For some of you it may be easier to love someone that is far away than to love someone you see everyday who may get on your nerves and you want to slap but remember…

God died for that person too.

You have to love them. This is the greatest commandment…Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

May we be a church that does not question, “Who is my neighbor?”

The goal is not to control the situation. The goal is not to fit God in a box. The goal is to live a life that worships God as the grand master of history that He is!

He is God and it is not your job to figure Him out. It is your job to have faith in Him!

Prayer:
God I am coming to you right now and I’m just praying that you would help me take the view off of myself. God, I don’t want to live in a small world. We don’t want to live in a world where it’s about our problems or where it’s always about our people or where it’s always about what we are going through and the issues we have. God, we want to live in a world where You are grand. We want to live in a world where we see people as the most prized possessions. Lord, my heart’s desire is to be a loving, generous, kind person that walks the earth as you did having grace on every single person. God, I pray today that Lord, you would open our hearts towards giving and generosity. I pray Lord Jesus that there will be a deep work Lord God that we would release control, Lord God; that we would release our need for things to work in a certain way and may we just give freely Lord God. I’m praying in my own life and in my own family Lord God and for everyone watching (reading) that we would genuinely give to a place where we trust you so much that giving things away would not be the hardest decision we have to make, Lord God; that we wouldn’t fight with You on generosity, that we wouldn’t fight with You with our kindness and our love and with our words. Lord, we want to be generous people just as You were. God, You did not judge us as we should be judged but You are generous beyond belief. You gave Your own son for us and for that, Lord God, we are grateful and our prayer Lord God is that You would use our lives to be people who can actually live large; people who can live in a world that is generous, giving, justice, mercy, peace, and grace Lord God. May we live in a world that has not tried to confine You or make You small so we can understand but that just like Psalms 1:31 that we are not too proud or we haven’t lifted our eyes too high as David said. I have decided that there is an area of God that I have decided to not try to seek to understand; that there are things far too great for me to understand. May we be okay with having a box that says, “You know what? I have some questions. I don’t understand it all. It may not all make sense to me but I am not going to confine God to try to make sense. I am going to allow myself for Him to be great, for Him to be massive, for Him to be infinite, for Him to be greater than anything I could ask for or imagine Lord God. Would You enlarge our world? Amen.