Welcome to our Together on Mission Podcast, when we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, the scripture, prayer, and meditation, and then continue that conversation with him throughout your day. Your hopes to strabish find you, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Together on Mission Podcast. This is Travis, and it is Tuesday morning, and the title of the podcast this morning is The Light of Generosity.
And I kind of wish I hadn't said the title of the podcast, because I want to do things just a little bit differently this morning. I want to just read the passage from Luke's Gospel, something about Jesus, just read the passage, and I just want to let it resonate. And then I'm going to show us something in a footnote and talk a little bit about a Greek word and a Greek idea that seems to be the key to the passage. And then I'm going to read the passage again and make a few comments.
And I know that you're accustomed to me asking a very practical question, and then we roll around in that question for a bit, then we go to the text, but I want to take a little bit of a different approach this morning, and I want to see what the Spirit of God wants to do in us, and with us as we begin a conversation with Jesus, as we just begin to chat with Jesus. And we're going to do that as we read this wonderful and a bit intriguing passage in the book of Luke. So Luke chapter 11 verse 33, no one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden or under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand so that those who come in may see the light.
Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your body is also full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. See to it then that the light within you is not darkness.
Therefore, if your whole body is full of light and no part is dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines light on you. Now, that is an interesting passage. What is Jesus getting at? Now, let me just take you to the bottom of the page of your Bible if you have a certain kind of Bible.
And what you're going to find is that the translators for verse 34 say, the Greek for healthy here implies generous. And then in verse 34, the translator will say, the Greek for unhealthy here implies stingy. So Jesus is talking about healthy and unhealthy. And that means in first century, generous or greedy.
So as Jesus begins to talk about this, this lamp that's not to be hidden, but to give light to everyone. And he says in verse 34, your eye is the lamp of the body. And when your eyes are healthy, in other words, when you are generous, right, you shine, but when you are unhealthy or stingy, your body is actually full of darkness. And so Jesus is saying that there are two ways to live.
There's generosity and therefore your life is literally shining into the life of other people into a dark world. Or there's a life of stinginess of greed, which is a life of darkness. Your body, if you will, can be full of either light or darkness. There are two kinds of ways to live.
One is dark and one shines brightly as a lamp shines in a dark room. And so Jesus here is talking about a life of generosity actually shines true light. The light of God, the light of the kingdom God into the lives of other people. And so what we discover in this passage, and it's one of Jesus's main points in the gospel, is that fear or greed or indifference or judgment.
These are not random things. These are strategies from the enemy to keep us from the life that is truly, truly life from the life that literally shines like a light on you. Jesus said, your body can either be full of light or full of darkness. And Jesus says that when you live generously, your body and your life are full of light.
But when you live stingy or greedy, your body is literally full of darkness. So Jesus is commissioning to live open-handed, to live generously to the church, to the hungry, to your neighbor, to your enemy, to anyone, to everyone and Paul. A little bit later in the New Testament will use this great image about God, where it says that God in Christ became poor. So that other people might become rich.
It's this image of a lavishly, hilariously, unbelievably generous God. And John, the gospel writer John, says in him in God was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. God is light. God is generous.
God is the antithesis of stingy and we're made in God's image. And so let's ponder this this morning. Let's think about this, this morning in the presence of Jesus. Today, let's be generous.
Let's, let's pour ourselves out. Let's think about how we can give money away and let's let our light shine, which is the glory of generosity, because we do get to make this choice by the power of the Spirit. Are we going to be literally filled with light? And that light gives light to the room, right?
It lights up the room. It lights up our life and life where the people, or are we going to give into greed or stinginess and literally be filled with darkness? That's the choice that Jesus is offering His disciples. And so as we walk and talk with Jesus today, let's not let fear, greed, indifference, judgment, win, because then we walk in darkness.
In fact, let's repent this morning. Let's pray the prayer of Father, forgive me for fear, forgive me of greed, forgive me of indifference, forgive me of judgment, Father, forgive me. I want to be let loose. I want to be set free.
I want my light life to literally, literally shine bright with generosity. And as we think about us, as we think about God this morning, you know, God celebrated our life by being generous. Let's celebrate the life of other people in and through generosity in all kinds of different ways. And we'll talk tomorrow.
Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you are blessed and encouraged by you today. If you had any questions about the Inland Vineyard Church, our ministries, or our Sunday services, feel free to connect with us on our brand new app, which you can find in the Google Play and the App Store and check out our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram, or even check out our website at inlandvignard.org.