Be Rich

What if faith was never meant to be a safe space, but a lived-out presence?

In this message, we explore what it looks like to live with integrity while fully engaging the city around us. From everyday choices to courageous acts of love, we’re invited to move beyond comfort and step into a faith that gives generously, serves intentionally, and loves extravagantly — the kind of faith that makes a real difference where we live.

Transcript

The Apostle Peter, when describing us Christians, said, you're a peculiar people. And I'd probably paraphrase that saying, we Christians are a bit weird. Yes, we're a bit strange. And when I was growing up in church in northeast Scotland, we were very strange indeed. We had some strange thoughts and strange beliefs.

And if we were ever invited to a wedding, we went along, we enjoyed the service, we sang the hymns, and then if we went to the meal afterwards, we would enjoy the meal, but of course, we wouldn't drink any alcohol. You couldn't do that back then. And then once all the speeches were done and the music kicked in, all the Christians, like, up and exited. They left. Because, of course, we couldn't be in a dance hall when people were actually enjoying themselves and there was music on that wasn't Christian.

You're looking at me a bit weird. And nobody else experienced this. It's only me.

And so I used to say to my mom and dad, like, I don't understand why we're leaving. I mean, Jesus didn't leave. He was turning water into wine at the wedding. And, like, we're leaving. And, you know, there's always a verse, isn't there?

There's a verse for everything. And so they used to quote this verse to me that Paul wrote to the Corinthians. We got that verse on the screen. Now, therefore go out from their midst and be ye separate from them, says the Lord. I was like, oh, but, you know, Paul isn't talking about physical isolation.

If you actually just go back one chapter, have a read tonight when you go home, the previous chapter, he's actually talking about how we need to be involved in the world, involved with people, and how we should be connected to people. So he wasn't talking about physical separation in that way, but he was talking about us maintaining our distinct values, the culture. See, when we become Christian, we no longer follow the things in this world. We take on a new culture that is the culture of heaven. Do you know what I mean?

It's like, and if the culture of heaven is different to the culture of this world, whose side are we on? Are you with me? I mean, like, you can tell by my accent, I'm Scottish. So Scottish have got culture a little bit. Anyway, men wear skirts.

I mean, kilts. But if the culture. And I'm proud to be Scottish, but if the culture of Scotland is different to the culture of heaven, whose side am I on? You with me? We take the culture of heaven, and it's about us maintaining that value in today's.

World. The culture of this world doesn't seem great. Some of the conversations that we're having now, I would have never believed that we could have had them. It just wouldn't have even come across. Some of the things that our kids are being taught in school is just crazy.

But we have got to keep the culture of heaven. It's talking about spiritual integrity and loyalty to Christ above everything else. Now, we want to be rich in our relationships at church. We want to be rich in relationships here. We want to be generous with each other, we want to see serve one another, we want to love one another.

But the way that God defines being rich doesn't stop at the church doors. It falls out of the church doors and goes into the world around. And we all often retreat into our Christian circles, our Christian friendships, our Christian activities. And that's okay, we need that. But we've got to be careful.

We don't retreat into a Christian ghetto. I mean, everything is spent. When you become a crass pastor, it's even worse. All you do is spend time with Christians all day speaking Christianese. You know what that means?

Saying something to you that you think the pastor wants to hear, but you don't really believe it yourself.

I remember a couple of weeks ago, past John ells Pastor John was talking about the fact that we've got a curry club in the church. And I was like, I didn't know about that. Why didn't you tell? I like curry. And he goes out with some friends from the church and that's great, that's wonderful.

But I have a curry club. Every second week I go to football with my mates who are pagans, and I get time to sit and talk with them and share my life with them because they're my friends and I get the opportunity to share Jesus with them in a little way. But along the way, we've started treating our faith like a fortress. And now we've got our people and those people. Our people are good, those people are bad.

And we've stopped building bridges and we've started building walls. And we see the city and the people in the city as a problem instead of a mission field. And we complain about our schools, but we don't volunteer. We got frustrated with the local council and man, there's a lot to get frustrated with. With the local council.

Yes. And we want to. We want our city to be different, but we don't want to be the difference. And when we see our city is the enemy, we live in resistance to. But what if There's a completely different way to think about this in our city.

In Milton Keynes, what if the key to being rich, the kind of rich that matters, is directly linked to the flourishing of the people and the city that we belong to? There's a time in Israel's history that we can read about in the book of Jeremiah. And the people of Israel have been living in a bit of rebellion towards God. And God said, if you don't repent and sort yourself out, I'm going to send in another nation and they're going to capture you and rule you. And they didn't sort themselves out.

So Babylon came in and they smashed Jerusalem up and took all the people away to Babylon and they found themselves the people of God. They didn't choose this, they didn't want this. They were conquered, they were exiled, they were displaced. Everything they knew was gone. The temple destroy, their city in ruins, their freedom taken away.

And they're sitting in Babylon thinking, what the heck is happening? Why are we here? This is not home, this is not where we belong. Why, we just need to survive till God comes and rescues us. I remember when I was again as a kid, there was a particular doctor went around that the church would soldier on, hold the fort, for Jesus is coming and we're just about to, just about to be crushed and the Rapture will happen and the church will be taken away, but hold the fort.

That's not the way that we should look at this whole thing. God is working and working in their lives. And God sends a letter to them through Jeremiah to help them to interpret the time that they're in and where they're at. And it's not what they expected. They were expecting quick.

You ever felt like you pray a prayer and you're expecting God to come now and rescue you? I mean, how would you like it if he told you it was going to take 70 years? Because like, there was loads of prophets around at the time and they were always prophesying great things for the people. Everything's going to be okay. God's going to come, everything's going to be fine.

And then in comes Jeremiah and goes, no, it's not. It's not quite going to be that fine. You're going to be here for. And so this is what he says. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Listen, build houses, settle down, plant gardens, eat what they produce, marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give them your daughters. In marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there, do not decrease. Also seek.

Now listen. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into. You notice it was God that was carrying them in, not the Babylonians. It was God. God's plan.

Seek the peace and prosperity of the city that I have carried you to in exile. Pray to the Lord for it. Now, that doesn't just mean like, throw up a casual prayer, like, I'm talking to God. The Hebrew word that is used there for prayer is the same as mediation on behalf of somebody else. It's interceding.

It's saying, I'm going to stand in the gap between my city and God and I'm going to pray for my city. I'm going to take this burden on me. That's what the word means in that particular aspect. There. Pray for the Lord.

Pray to the Lord for it. Because now listen, if it prospers, you too will prosper. Isn't that amazing? Work for this thing. You're here under captivity, but as it prospers, you will prosper.

What's God saying? Fast. He says, settle in, build houses, plant gardens, marry. God's not saying like, hunker down. He says, live here like you belong here and make a difference in this place.

Plant roots, invest, have grandchildren. He's saying, second thing is multiply, increase in number. Don't decrease, don't retreat, don't preserve what you have. Grow, expand, flourish in the place that you don't think you should be in. 3.

And here's the kicker. Listen to this. It's the way that the ESV puts that verse. It says, seek the welfare of your city. Seek the welfare of your city.

In Hebrew, that word seek is darash. And it means to pursue with intention. To care deeply about something, to actively work for it. You know, listen to God's reason. God's reason for actively doing this.

He says, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. Your blessings and your city's blessing are connected. Now, listen, I always have steered away from teaching on Jeremiah 29. Because in Jeremiah 29, there's a verse that everybody rips completely out of context. You know what it is.

You know the plans I have for you? Yes. Okay, let me just talk to you about that in a slightly different way. So verse seven again it says, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. And pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

He goes on to verse 10 talks about all the prophets. And then verse 10 he says, for thus saith the Lord, when 70 years are completed, he's going, you're going to be here 70 years. This is the answer. And then verse 10 then goes into verse 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.

Plans for welfare. Remember the same word, Plans for welfare and not for evil. To give you a future and a hope. The future and hope that he's telling them about in verse 11 is 70 years away. What good is that for me today?

I mean, I'm not going to be here in 70 years. I've got news for you. I'm going to be in heaven, enjoy myself.

We're not going to be so 70 years, people would have died in Babylon. But he's not. But you see, so he's got plans. But you see what the plan for them to live. People take that verse and go, okay, well, he's going to help me sometime in the future.

He's given us a key to how we live in prosperous now, the welfare. Now, how do we live? With the same word, the welfare, the prospering peace and prosperity that's mentioned in verse 11. How do we live that now? We live it by caring for the welfare of a city.

You with me? So he's not just saying something for the future. The key to the whole of Jeremiah 29 is what we do now. God's in control when he's going to do great stuff. But what do we do now?

How do we prosper now when he said care for the city. So how do we do that? How do we care for our city? Well, firstly, we give generously. We give generously not just to the church, though it matters, but to our city.

Where can your resources make a difference in this city? Maybe it's supporting a local school, maybe it's supporting a food bank. Maybe it's supporting a local business that's run by your neighbors. And when you give to the city, you are not just being charitable, you are participating with God in the flourishing that he wants to take place in his city. We've got a slogan here.

We say, we are for Milton Keynes. We are for Milton Keynes because God is for Milton Keynes. That's not just an idea we thought up on the backside just thinking about it. It's a God idea. He's saying, before your city, before the people in your city, give generously.

And we're going to give you that opportunity to give to the Be Rich Crisis Fund. Last year we supported 158 families through 14 local organizations that are already doing the work on. We heard about one of them earlier, and there's another 14 that we've helped in that way. And we're just asking Everybody to give 10 pounds, small amount, but all doing it together creates a big amount. The last few years, when we've been given to be rich, we've given over £68,000.

And that's been distributed into our community to make a difference. And we're asking you today to be part of a miracle that will touch the welfare of a city, that will change people's lives, that need. Together we can make a difference. So we give generously. We serve intentionally.

Jeremiah told them to seek the welfare of the city. Now, in Hebrew, there's a few more tenses than we have in English, and there's a tense called the accusative tense. And in the Hebrew, if you look at the original Hebrew words, there's two letters that appear in this text. It's like an X and an N, but it's not translated because it's not a word in itself. It's given a meaning to what's being said.

What it does, it joins us, Sikh and the city together. It points at each other. If you were doing it on your. Like, if you had a paper in front of you and you were writing this, now you would be doing Sikh, big circle round it bold, and a big arrow across to the city. You with me.

It joins everything together. It's not a passive thing, it's an active thing. And he's saying, seek the welfare of. Of the city. Don't be confused by anything else.

We are seeking and serving the city. Don't wait for somebody else. Join a school governance board, maybe clean up a park, but be something in the city that God has placed us. This week, I was scrolling through Facebook, like I do sometimes, and I came across this picture of Deanna. She's not here, is she?

Seen her this morning, Deanna. And it was celebrating the fact that Deanna, who has been volunteering with the food bank for 21 years, isn't that amazing. Surely that deserves a clap.

I mean, that was probably when I was across the road in the house in a room there with a couple of boxes, and she's seen it grow into something. That's incredible. Faithfulness. God is so much more interested in faithfulness than he is anything else. We just need to be continually faithful to God so we can serve intentionally.

And lastly, we can love extravagantly. There's a group of Christians in the early church in the third century, they were called the parabolani. If you translate that word, it means reckless ones. And what was happening at that time, devastating plagues were moving across the whole Roman Empire. And when a plague came to a city, usual things happened.

First of all, the politicians went first. They weren't having a party in Downing street, they just left. You look at me, you're looking at me a bit weird. The politicians took what they had and left the city because they didn't want to be bothered with the plague. And then after them, all the wealthy people went because they had a house in another city that they could go to and live there.

And then the people that couldn't do anything were left in the city. And so instead of running, the Christians, the reckless ones, the parabolani, they stayed in the city where everybody else went. And they organized themselves into little groups that went into the plague ravaged streets. And they cared for the sick, they buried the dead, even the bodies that nobody else would touch. And they brought food to the quarantined families and they risked everything.

And they're called reckless because they had no regard to their own safety. They didn't calculate the risk, they didn't protect themselves, they just loved. It's said that, it's been said in the past that the big turning point for the church was when a Roman emperor called Constantine in 300 and something said that Christianity was now going to be the state religion. And maybe there's something there. But as historians are starting to realize, there was something more going on.

And they're starting to point more towards this, of Christians who went out of their way to love the city in crisis. They stepped in when everybody else was stepping out, they stepped in. And here's what's remarkable. It just exploded across the empire. Pagans wanted to understand what Christians were doing and they watched them choose the city over their own comfort.

And they were saying things like, what kind of God makes people love like this? So who's their neighbour?

Not somebody in this room. I mean the actual person who lives next door to you. Do you know their name? Do you know their story, their struggles? God says to pray for the city and to pray for people, you need to, you need to know the people, you need to see them.

We all face opportunities every single day to be reckless with our love. We can choose our neighbor over our Netflix and we can change the way that we live to be recklessly, extravagantly, sacrificially. We become rich in ways that matter eternally. And that's what we're calling us to today. Let me finish.

Just by praying, imagine what would happen if we actually lived this way. Imagine if Venture Church became known not just as a place where people come on Sunday, but as a people who make MK better in every day of the week.

Imagine if every school in the city had volunteers from our church serving it. Imagine if every struggling family knew they had neighbors, us who actually cared. Imagine if business owners, city leaders, teachers, community organizers said, you know who's really making a difference? Those people from the Venture Church. Imagine if people in Milton Keynes looked at us in a way that pagans looked at the parabolani and asked, what kind of God makes people love like that?

And Father, we find the answer in that. You first loved us and broke into our world and changed everything about it. We weren't looking for you, we weren't even asking for you. But you stepped into our life and open our eyes to your son and his sacrifice and what he's done in our life to make a relationship possible for you. Help us to continue to step into this world and bring your love and your life.

We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.