Generosity

Well, it's good to see you this morning on this campus and on every campus, those of you who are worshiping with us, who have come from out of town, maybe, from Eight Days of Hope. So glad that you're here. You may be at this campus, you may be at our Cheektowaga Campus or any of our other campuses. So grateful that you're with us today. My name's Jerry, if we haven't met, and you are a special guest to us, so we are really grateful that you're here serving our city alongside of us. Thank you for doing that. We've been in a series here at The Chapel called Habits of Grace, and what we've been doing, some of you may refer to those as spiritual disciplines, but we are calling them habits of grace. In other words, they are opportunities for us, vehicles of grace to be able to know God and to live for God, whether that's spending time in the word, or prayer and fasting, or rest, or missional living, or what we'll even talk about in just a moment. But I wanna remind you that habits of grace are not only for us to get to know God for who He truly is and for us to be able to live for God in ways that He's called us to live. But habits of grace actually enabled us to become like Him in His very nature. And we're gonna see that today, and it's gonna be very specific. Here's why. God, listen to this. God is generous. Can I get an amen to that?

- [Congregation] Amen.

- God is generous. Now, we know that God has acted generously in a variety of different ways, right? But it's because of God's essential nature, that God Himself is actually a generous God. Because of who He is, He created the world in such a way that was reflective of His own nature. Think about it this way. He created outside of Himself because He is generous by nature. He didn't just create everything, watch this, everything for Himself, even though everything is to His glory. He also created it for the benefit of those that are outside of Himself because He's generous. He also created the world in such a way that, listen to this, it was generative, which is also kind of the root word of what generous means, able to make more, able to reproduce. When you read Genesis 1, you see that God made seed-bearing plants. It literally says that, seed-bearing plants. Do you know what that says to us? It means that He made plants with the capacity to be able to make more of themselves, for them to be able to reproduce. When He made human beings, He placed the seed of life into human beings such that they are not existent alone, but they have the capacity to make more, to be able to reproduce. Everything in creation testifies that God Himself is generous. So when Paul the Apostle is writing his second letter to Corinth that we call Second Corinthians, he is talking to them about a material need that's present that he wants to alert them about, but he takes the opportunity in and through that material need to teach them about God's very nature of generosity. That's what He does. Here was the occasion for the writing. Jerusalem had gone through a great deal of persecution. You remember that? Remember when the early church was born, and then there was a great deal of persecution, and the church spread out all over the place. Paul is now writing because the mother church, Jerusalem, was struggling, they were being persecuted. Some of them were not able to work because they were being shut out of their jobs, and they had a financial need. He had already appealed, we could read about it in 2 Corinthians 8. He'd already appealed to the churches of Macedonia, like Thessalonica, and Philippi, Berea, those kinds of churches, and he appealed to them to be able to give an offering to help out the church in Jerusalem because they were going through it. And in fact, they responded remarkably. 2 Corinthians 8 actually tells us that Paul writes, "Out of their poverty, they gave generously, and God used that significantly." It was a really beautiful statement about the churches of Macedonia. And then Paul turns his attention to the church at Corinth and basically says, "Just like they were generous, I want you to be generous as well." And he's challenging them. In 2 Corinthians 9, he's challenging them toward generosity. Now, listen. I already know what's happening in some people's minds right now. "Uh-oh. This is a message on money that he's about to preach." Actually, I need to pause you right there. This is actually a message about God. And because the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, that also includes your material possessions, and your time, and everything else about it. But predominantly, the message that I'm gonna talk to you about today, it's about God. Does it include giving and/or money? Absolutely. But I want us to learn about God and respond to God. That's what Paul is really trying to teach them. Now, let me ask a quick question before we're done. If you are here, and you know me at The Chapel, if you're here at, and I can do this at the CrossPoint Campus, you can raise your hands for fun at the other campuses. I can't see you, or can I? Here's what I want to ask. Do you think that I am reasonably trustworthy? Show of hands. You better put that hand up. I'm not playing. Put your hands down. Do you think that I'm relatively kind as a person, those of you that know me, all right? Great, thank you. Do you think that I have your good in mind? Thank you, thank you for that. So on the testimony of these other people, I'm gonna ask you, how many of you... At this campus, I know we've got some of you on other campuses as well. Sorry, I can't be right there with you. If you're here at this campus and you came from out of town for Eight Days of Hope, would you just put your hand up in the air? Came from out of town. Okay, fantastic, that's awesome. And I know we've got a bunch of other campuses as well. Would one of you would one of you have a $5 bill on you? Would somebody have a $5 bill? Like, you got it right in your hand? Got it in your hand? You came from out of town. You got it right there. Sir, could I have it? Thanks. What's your name?

- [Mike] Mike.

- Mike? Jerry, good to meet you, thank you. $5, thanks. Thanks, Mike. Now, let's see what the Scripture has to say... About God in this passage of Scripture. I actually wanna unpack this because Paul teaches us some things about God. You guys are going, "What is happening right now?" Just hang. What is he teaching us about God? Here's the very first thing that we're going to learn. The first truth we're going to learn out of 2 Corinthians 9. If you have a Bible, you can turn there with me. But here's the very first truth. God loves joyful, generous giving. God loves joyful, generous giving. I want you to begin with me in 2 Corinthians 9, beginning in Verse Number 6. It says this. "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." Let me ask you a question here real quick. Why is it, do you think, that God loves cheerful, joyous giving? Let me answer it for you. Because God is the most joyous, cheerful being in the cosmos. The reason God loves joyful giving is because God is the most joyous being in the cosmos. C.S. Lewis once said, "Joy is the serious business of heaven." That ultimately, God, who Himself is so joyous beyond what we could ever imagine, when we begin to reflect what He looks like, He loves it. And, by the way, why do you think, as Paul tells us, those who sow sparingly, reap sparingly; those who sow generously or bountifully will reap bountifully. Why do you think that God loves generous giving? Because God is the most generous being in the cosmos. So should it surprise us that the most joyous and generous being in the entire cosmos loves it when we reflect his nature by being joyous, and cheerful, and generous in our giving? That should not surprise us because of the nature of who God is. So God loves joyful, generous giving and baked within what I just read just a moment ago. There are actually two principles: one that's around generosity and one that's around joy. The first principle around generosity is this, is that sowing and reaping are correlated. Correlated's a big word for some of us, I realize. You're like, "Wait a minute, I'm in church. That's a big word, correlate." They go together, sowing and reaping go together. Here's what I mean by that. When Paul says those who sow very little, they're gonna reap very little. And those who sow a lot, they're going to reap a lot. That's obviously true. And do you know what else is true? Whatever it is that you sow is what you're going to reap. You do not plant apple seeds and get carrots. That's not what happens. So what Paul's reminding us of is this. Is that when we sow kingdom seeds, then we are going to reap kingdom blessings. If we sow seeds for self, then we're going to reap that which is for self. And here's what I would ask you. Because of the nature of how God does what He does, why would we ever want to be stingy in kingdom giving? Why? Because our kingdom giving has the capacity within it. The seed that we give into the work of the kingdom, like so many are doing, by the way, at Eight Days of Hope, the seed that we give into the kingdom has the capacity for a 10-time, or 10-fold return, or a 50-fold return, or 100-fold return. Why would we want to be stingy about that? Why do we want to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal? And instead, we have the opportunity to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. "What do those look like, Jerry?" I don't know, but I want in on it. I want to be somebody who has treasures in heaven. Paul's reminding us, "Give big to kingdom things. Trust God is good. Trust God is trustworthy. Trust that God is kind. Trust that God has your best interest in mind, and give big to kingdom things." See, sowing and reaping are correlated. That's a principle around generosity. But there's also a principle around joy, and it's this. The heart is the key to giving. I mean, Paul basically says this. He says, "You're not to give under compulsion. You're to do whatever you've set aside in your heart to do because God loves a cheerful or a joyous giver." So here's the question. What does your heart believe about God? What does your heart believe about God, about God's goodness, about God's generosity, about God's trustworthiness? What does your heart believe about God? See, when we believe about God, what is true about God, we can't help but be a generous people. It's the nature of God in us that allows us to be that kind of people. See, the old saying is true. It's not my saying, it's the old saying, that's why I said it was old and I'm not old. The old saying is true. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. You can give without loving. You can do it as a duty, but you can't love without actually giving because that's the nature of God in us when we love Him and His love is in us. This is naturally what happens. You see what God wants to do is He wants to love us giving at the intersection of joy and generosity. This is what God wants for us. Watch this. God doesn't say that He loves joyous people who don't give. He certainly loves them. But I'm talking about the act, right? You can be joyous and not give. God doesn't say, "I love that act." You can also give and not have any joy in doing it. Have you ever known those people? "Here's your money," right, or whatever. "Here's your birthday present," right? It's kind of a terrible thing. God doesn't say, "I love that." No, no, what God loves is He loves the intersection of joy and generosity because it's reflective of who He is. It's God's own nature. God loves joyful, generous giving. Let me remind you of a second truth that Paul gives us here, and it's this. That God abundantly blesses giving. God will abundantly bless giving. He goes on to say this in Verse Number 8, "And God is able to bless you abundantly." Do you wonder where I got that point from? "God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: 'They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.' Now, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply, watch this, and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of righteousness." That's a pretty remarkable statement that is given to us by Paul, right? Now, what's interesting about this is when we begin to read this, you start seeing, "Okay, it sounds like Paul is saying that as we give and we reflect the heart of God in our giving, that God will actually give to us." In other words, that we give, and as a result of that, we actually get more. Now, I want you to understand that this passage is talking about more than just material things, but listen to me. But it's not talking about less than material things. See, the passage itself is actually about material provision for those in Jerusalem. It's about giving of resources to be able to help fill a need that's happening in Jerusalem. We can't make this passage what it's not. It is actually about that. It does have everything to do with material possessions and resources, but it means more than that. But it doesn't mean less than that, and we have to understand that. But if we're not careful, what happens is we stop in this passage of Scripture, and we maybe get a corrupted idea of what God wants to do in this process of generosity. That corrupted idea is often called, in theological circles, a prosperity gospel. You've heard it. Some of those folks that are on TV, by the way, we're also on TV, so I don't know why I say that sometimes, but we're on TV and don't ask people for nothing. How about that? But nonetheless, some of the folks that you'll find, they're prosperity gospel preachers that'll basically say this. "If you'll sow this seed into our ministry, then you're gonna have way more. You give us $5 and you're gonna get more or whatever." Now, listen. Here's what always happens, though. They get more, like, "If you'll sow into us, God's gonna bless you." Yeah, so you're gonna get a new jet. I'm out on that. I think that's ridiculous, right? And then that person may... Listen, here's the thing. They're taking a portion of the Scripture, which is true, that when we give, God gives to us. He does do that. He says it very clearly, doesn't He? That He is going to enlarge your harvest of righteousness, that He's going to increase the amount of seed that you have. He's referring to material possessions. Remember, He is talking to a farming culture right here. He's going to increase all of that. But the problem is, is that we kind of leave out the back end in Verse Number 11. Watch what it says. "You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous." Did you catch it? You see, what the prosperity gospel does is it says this, the calculus of the prosperity gospel is this. Give to get. But the calculus of the true gospel is this. Give to get to give. This is what God actually has in mind so that you can be generous on every occasion. That the reason that God wants to demonstrate His great generosity when we trust Him and we give to kingdom things, and God says, "I am going to give to you as a result of that." Because remember, you can't outgive God, right? That's impossible, you can't outgive Him. So you'll give, God will then give to you. But He does it in order for you to be generous on every occasion. It's really the Abrahamic blessing, just Paul rephrasing it in a different way. Remember, God said to Abraham that, "I am going to bless you." To do what? To be a blessing. Paul's just restating the Abrahamic covenant, that you should be blessed in order to be a blessing. So God abundantly blesses giving, but He does it for the purpose of increasing generosity through the people of God in the world. That's the point. Why? Because it's giving people an example of what God is like. A third truth here is this, that God uses our giving to benefit others. God uses our giving to benefit others. In fact, I wanna speak about this in kind of two different ways. Here's the first. That He supplies the needs of others. God supplies the needs of others through our giving. Look at the very beginning of Verse Number 12. It says, "This service that you perform," in other words, this act of giving that you're doing, "is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people." Remember, this is talking about Paul taking up an offering for the church at Jerusalem that was undergoing a great difficulty. And Paul says that, "In your doing this, you are supplying the needs of others." You realize that when God created everything out of His generosity, He was doing it with others in mind. Certainly everything is for His glory, the whole earth is the Lord's and everything in it, but He was doing this outside of Himself. He created outside of Himself for the sake of other people. And you and I, when we think about who we are and what we do, when we are thinking about creating for those that are outside of ourselves, that is wonderfully reflective of the very nature of God. You may remember back, I'm not gonna go to the passage of Scripture, but it's in Leviticus 19, if you wanna go look it up. God actually gave a command to Israel. Remember, Israel was a farming community. They grew stuff, that's kind of what they did, right? It wasn't IT in those days, they kind of all had similar jobs. And it was growing stuff and making stuff from the things that they'd grown, right? So He said to this farming community, Israel, He said, "Here's what I want you to do. Do not reap your fields all the way to the edges." This is Leviticus 19. God says, "Do not reap your fields all the way to the edges." "Why?" "The edges are for others." "Huh? Oh, so this is my field, right? I own the field, it's my field." But God says, "Don't consume everything in your field. You should leave space in your field for others, so that they can now reap from the edges of the field." This is remarkably reflective of the character and nature of God. That God is this kind of God. God is one who is wanting to do that for others. He certainly wants to supply our need. Thank God that He does. But He also teaches us that we are not to consume everything that He's given us on ourselves, but instead we are to leave room so that others can benefit. Having margin. Now, there's so many of us. I mean, we've got, I don't know, between four and 500 people from The Chapel that are serving at Eight Days of Hope this year. We got people that are coming in from, I don't know what, 37 states or something like that who've come to serve. What a great example of leaving margin for others. What a great example that is. That, in other words, you spent time and money to be able to come, maybe used your vacation to be able to come and do something like this to serve other people. You created margin in your world for the sake of other people. You're not consuming everything on yourself. And I know those of you that are here at our Cheektowaga campus who are serving with Eight Days of Hope or any of our other campuses, thank you for demonstrating this principally that this is what this looks like. That God uses what you do and how you give to supply the needs of others because you haven't consumed everything on yourself. And as a result, through the blessing of God in your own life, you've been able to turn that to being able to be a blessing to others. And for those who've come out of state, thank you for doing that in our city. We're grateful for that. We thank God for it. But do you know what this also does, that God uses our giving to benefit others? You know what the other outcome of this is? It causes others to worship God. What a beautiful outcome this is. It causes others to worship God because of our generosity and our giving. Look in Verse 12. "This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you." Do you know what it says? That our giving is used to benefit others because through our generosity, we're giving a testimony to the God we believe is incredibly generous, is incredibly good, has our good in mind, is incredibly trustworthy, is perfectly kind, and we are testifying that to that through our generosity. And do you know what it causes in other people's lives? Thanks to God, worship of God, gratitude to God, prayers on our behalf of Thanksgiving to God. What a wonderful testimony this is. Could you just imagine what that looks like? Because you know what you're not able to do and I'm not able to do? We're not actually able to see every way in which God uses our generosity. But could you pause for a second and let yourself walk into the new creation and let, in that time that we have, which is all eternity, by the way, we're not gonna be rushed. And this cavalcade of people who are coming up to you and saying... And they know your name. Like, "Hey, we haven't even met yet," but they know your name 'cause we just know things. We're in the new creation, we just know stuff about one another. Just like Elijah and Moses did not have to be introduced to Peter, and James, and John at the Mount of Transfiguration, they just knew who they were. Here we are in the new creation, and people start coming up to you and saying, "Hey, Susan." "Hey, Dave, I wanted to thank you. I'm from India, and your church has been investing, was investing in the things of God. And as a result of your support for one of those missionaries, I was in a vacation Bible school where I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and it transformed my life. God got a hold of me, and He used me, and I became used by Him for the purposes of God. And we've never met and you don't know me, but I just wanted to say thank you and I wanted to say thank you to Jesus for using you in my life in ways you never saw, or understood, or even imagined." And that could just be one of thousands of ways in which God blesses others and causes them to worship through what we can't even see, because God does with what we will do in obedience in greater ways than we could ever imagine or maybe ever even see. What a beautiful thing. 
- And that could just be one of thousands of ways in which God blesses others and causes them to worship through what we can't even see. Because God does with what we will do in obedience in greater ways than we could ever imagine or maybe ever even see. What a beautiful thing. Mike, I haven't forgotten you. If you just come back, I'll give you your... No, come on back, come on back. It's part of the deal, come on back. You were kind enough to trust me with this and I really appreciated it, thank you. I'm gonna add something to it. There's a 50. You can have a seat. Here's the reason. Listen carefully. Mike, just like you, has had the opportunity to be able to hear about generosity. You guys were kind enough to say that you believe that I'm relatively trustworthy, but am I perfectly trustworthy? The answer's no. That I'm relatively kind, but am I perfectly kind? The answer's no. That I have your best interest in mind, and I generally do, but do I perfectly have everyone's best interest in mind? I probably don't because I'm imperfect. If I can be trusted in just something as simple as this, the God who made everything, the God who owns it all, the God who is for you, the God who knows everything about you and how He wants to use you, the God who wants to bless you because you trust Him in the ways in which you are a generous person, it is remarkable what God may want to do in your life as a result of that. So, why don't we live our lives this way? What's keeping you from living this kind of life? You see, everybody is on some kind of spectrum of giving. Maybe here, it's brand-new and you are an emerging giver. Notice how I said that really, really graciously? You're an emerging giver. You may not have emerged yet, but you're an emerging person of generosity. But you keep moving along the spectrum and you begin to grow in that, right, to where you get to a place of extravagant giving. You can go from emerging giving to extravagant giving and look like God more and more in the process. So the question, I guess, that we would ask when we look at something like this is we would ask simply, "Where am I on that continuum, and where am I content to stay or where would I like to be on that continuum, and what does that look like?" And maybe it's gonna require that we actually investigate our own heart attitude because heart is paramount when it comes to the idea of giving. Here's the question. You have to ask, in your heart of hearts: Do I trust that God is generous? Do I trust the character of God? Do I trust that God is completely trustworthy? Do I trust that God is good? Do I trust that God is kind? Do I trust that God has my best interest in mind and that God wants to give the world a demonstration of his own life? What is your heart attitude? Do I have kingdom priorities in my own heart attitude, or have I been consuming everything in my field on myself and leaving nothing with which to be generous with? Or maybe... Maybe you are asking questions that need to change. The question you're asking is: How much should I give? Maybe you should change that question to: How much should I keep? Or ask this question: What's enough? What's enough? And by the way, you say, "Well, I'm earning more and all that kinda stuff." Great. What's enough, and how can you even be more generous in the ways in which God has provided for you and graciously given to you? This is a wonderful question for us all to ask. Some of you kind of asking this question, you're like, "Well, what if I don't have much?" Well, then you're in the same place that every single one of us starts. We're all starting in that same place. We don't have much, unless you were born on third base. And if you were, God bless you, and figure out how you steward that really well. But most of us kind of start that way, right? We don't have very much. So what do I do as a result of that? Well, we learn it. Actually, we learn it easier when we are younger. When I first came to Christ, I had a man sit down with me and begin to disciple me. And one of the first things He talked to me about was not being the owner of everything that I had and starting to give. I mean, I didn't even have pizza money as a college student. I didn't even have pizza money, basically. But anything, if I worked a little odd job or whatever, I was giving. I was giving to the Lord out of that odd job. And it wasn't like hardly anything. I mean, I honestly, like truthfully, at times, I was given like $1, or $2, or whatever 'cause the minimum wage back in the day was like $3.13. Anybody remember that? It was just kind of how it was. I worked 100 hours and made $12, it was fantastic. Those were good days, right? But whatever. And I just learned that and it carried me through. When we got married, same thing, it was just who we were. We wanted to start in that trajectory. And when we're younger, sometimes it's easier. When we don't have as much, sometimes it's easier to get started that way. I remember Hudson Taylor, if you remember Hudson Taylor, famous British missionary from the mid-1800s that started China Inland Mission. He didn't have very much, but God had called him to do this. And he was deciding that he was gonna open a bank account because the China Inland Mission was calling them to open a bank account and they were gonna do that. And the bank asked for a list of his assets. Here's what he wrote. Remember, he's British, so they have pounds, not dollars. Here's what he wrote. "10 pounds and all the promises of God. I've got 10 pounds and all the promises of God." You see, he understood what it meant to trust the Lord, even if it was just a little bit. And I know that some of you're thinking, "Well, how do I work through that?" Some of you have to work through stewardship of your financial world, and you've never done that. If you go to thechapel.com/habitsofgrace, we've got some resources there for you, some classes that you can get involved in at some point in the not-too-distant future if you wanted to. So there's all kinds of opportunity for you to grow and to learn in this arena of your life because it is reflective of the very nature of God. But let me tell you just one last truth that's, I think, the most beautiful of them all in this passage of Scripture that Paul gives to us, and it's this, that God's giving is indescribable. God's giving is indescribable. Look at what He says to conclude this portion in this chapter in Verse Number 15. "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift." What a beautiful picture this is. His indescribable gift. Think about it. Jesus, if I can use this picture, began on earth as the smallest of seeds inside the womb of a teenage virgin in a small village. As He eventually embarked on His ministry of testifying to the kingdom and fulfilling the Father's will, Jesus Himself saw His life like that of a seed. Paul used that phraseology right here, and Jesus viewed His life that way. And in speaking of His coming death, here's what Jesus said in John 12. Jesus said, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." You see, what God is showing us in and through Jesus Christ is the glorious generosity of who He is. This indescribable gift that God has given, this wonderful seed, lived a life of service through generously giving his own life. But He did so, friends, listen to this, with joy. Hebrews 12 tells us this, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning at shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Even His cross, even His death, even His crucifixion was done with a focus on the joyous nature of who He is and what was to come as a result of this. But after three days after His death, this seed was raised anew as a tree of life, the first fruits of new creation coming forth, and He gladly gave Himself a way for us. The one who had everything gave up everything on our behalf. Listen to how Paul phrased it just one chapter earlier than where we are in 2 Corinthians 8. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty, might become rich." This is the glorious generosity of the king. And it's from that seed, Jesus, this one who died, who rose from grave, that comes the fruit of the church and the reconciliation of all who will believe in Him. What a glorious and generous gift, an indescribable gift of God's grace. This is the beauty of what the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us, friends, that it's not about the word of God just saying, "Hey, I want you to give and I want you to do it reluctantly, and I want you to do it." No, He's doing it because this is the nature of who God is and how God has demonstrated His glory in the very world that we are in. So maybe I could summarize it this way. If you wanna look like Jesus, let Him shape you into a generous person. If you wanna look like Jesus, let Him shape you into a generous person. You see, these habits of grace that we are embracing and that we are forming in our lives, they're not only a vehicle for us to know God well and a vehicle for us to be able to serve God well, but they're also a vehicle for us to become like God in His very nature. And that's what we want to do. That's the purpose that God has for our lives. We have been, watch this, Ephesians 1 says, "We have been predestined to be conformed into the image of Christ." We are destined to be made like Jesus, to be like God in His nature, to think like, to act like, to talk like Jesus. And if you want to really look like Jesus, let Him shape you into a generous person. I had a pastor friend of mine, older-mentor-type who used to say all the time, "I'm not sure that we're any more like Jesus than when we're giving because of the nature of who Jesus is and what He's done." So I wanna remind you, this is not about some message on money. This is a message about God and how He has demonstrated to the world the beauty of His generosity in Jesus Christ and how those of us who have Christ living in us can't help but be a generous people. I know you to be... Generally speaking, I don't know every one of you, but generally speaking, every campus, I know you to be a generous people, and I thank God for that. But we can't be satisfied just where we are on the continuum of what God wants to do. We have to always come back and ask the question: Lord, what else do you want? What are you calling me to? How do you want to use me? And just let God do what God does in that regard. But I would say this. If you're here and you've never before found the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, know this, that God has generously poured out His love, and He's demonstrated His love to us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ rose from the grave for us. Christ is the only way to the Father for us. And He wants to welcome you with generously wide open arms to be in the family of God and to change you. And if you've never done that, I encourage you this day to receive Jesus and all that He has for you by His grace. Let's bow our heads together. In a moment, we'll be dismissed and we'll be walking out, and I thank you for your kindness, and your patience, and... And I pray that in these moments that you would let the Holy Spirit begin to do in your heart what He desires to do in your heart. There'll be some folks that'll be standing down front that if you need somebody to pray for you, if you need somebody to maybe come alongside you and talk to you about what it means to receive Jesus as Lord, or maybe what it means to... To be somebody who's generous in spirit and you need somebody to just come alongside you and pray for you, we'd love to be able to do that. There'll be some men and women down here that would love to take a moment and do that very thing. Father, I pray that in our time together, that we would treasure your word because of what it teaches us. That God, we see a revelation of who you are, your heart, your character, your nature, your essence, what you're calling us to be and to become. And I pray that we would receive that with joy, that we would be people who would receive the seed of the word that's planted in our hearts, and that it would bear fruit, and that it would grow because we need the world around us to see the beauty of Christ. Lord, we know that one of those ways is that when we're people who are generous, people who give, maybe we can look at that in terms of our neighbors, or our work associates, or our family members, people that we don't even know. Thank you for the illustration among us, the living illustration of people coming in from different places around the country, to be able to serve our city. God, I pray that you would abundantly bless them and that they would receive that blessing in such a way that they would realize that they are blessed to, in turn, continue being a blessing. So, God, I pray that you would do your good work by your own spirit in the lives of people. And I ask this now in Jesus' name. Amen.