Speaker 1: 0:00

Awesome, well, welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you guys are here with us today. Now I have a question for you, though. I have a question Can we be honest today, have you ever felt a little bit entitled? Now, let's be honest, we live in one of the most entitled cultures there is. So, no matter who you are, you probably had a moment where you felt a little entitled to something or something like that. I have a story I got to share with you from my BC days before children. You might judge me a little bit, but that's okay, but hopefully you showed me some grace.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Okay, back in the day before I had kids, I used to love going to the movies. I had kids. I used to love going to the movies. I went to the movies all the time. I was an AMC Stubbs member and I was proud of it. Baby, I loved it. I had my Stubbs card and because I had my Stubbs card, I had my own line I got to go to. When I went to buy tickets, I had my own Stubbs line. When I got my giant popcorn, which I always had to get, I had my own line to get to. I got to cut by all the regular people and I had my own special. I had my own special. My wife used to hate going to the movies with me because I would just show it off. Look at me Stubbs member. Baby, this is me Now.

Speaker 1: 1:20

There was this one, though, that we went to the movies and there was an AMC worker who must have been new and poorly trained, because I was in my Stubbs line and this person kept letting the regular people go first, and I was like wait a second, I'm in my line right here. You're supposed to call me first. And it was a long line. And then Aaron leaned over and said please don't do it. I said, babe, I am a Stubbs member, and so I grabbed my card out and I started to walk. I say, hey guys, sorry, sorry people, I'm a Stubbs member, I get to cut the line. And so I did. Yes, I may have some problems.

Speaker 1: 2:03

I was feeling a bit entitled in that moment. See, please don't judge me, I've changed. Okay. So here you go. But here's the thing I was feeling a bit entitled. But the thing about entitlement is this is basically living like everything belongs to you. Everything belongs to you, and if we're not careful, that mindset of entitlement can sneak into our lives, can sneak into our finances, can sneak into our relationships and especially our relationship with God. Well, god, why won't you do this for me? God, I've been doing this. You should show up for me, god. You should be doing these things. And there's a level of entitlement here which brings us to part three of our series that we have been in called Practicing Generosity.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Today, we want to talk about the topic of all we have belongs to God. Now, this is an interesting topic we're going to share today, because we're not owners, we're stewards. We're stewards of what God has given us. And here you go. In this series, we haven't been just talking about the concept of generosity. We've been wanting to practice it, we've been wanting to put it into play. Here you go. Last week, we had an awesome guest speaker come and share with us and he is starting a church down in Dinwiddie County, virginia. Come on where the cows are. And us, as a church, we were able to sponsor him. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 3:27

This is something that we do, just in case you don't know, as a church. We tithe as a church every month, because we would never ask you to do something that we don't do, and so we do that. So 3% of what we have goes to international missions. We're always trying to support missionaries. 3% goes to national missions, 3% goes to local missions, and then we give 1% to people who fall on hard times. You may ask well, why only 1% to that? Well, here you go. That's the importance of small groups. Small groups are our time. When you're going through different life challenges, to see your small group rally behind you is a good way to find that support. But you go. But because of that, I want to let you know what you did LVC. We were able to give a little over $1,200 to Vision Church down in Dinwiddie County. Isn't that awesome, isn't that great?

Speaker 1: 4:15

And then next week, next week, as we close out this series, we're going to talk about giving to an organization that I absolutely love called Compassion International, which their mission is to leave no kid in hunger. Leave no kid hungry. And we're going to talk about that a little bit more on next week. But today we're going to talk about this concept that all we have belongs to God. All we have belongs to God. See, scholars argue upwards of 25% of Jesus' teachings have to do with money and generosity and almost half of Jesus' parables have to do with how his disciples are to steward their resources.

Speaker 1: 4:54

We're going to look at Luke, chapter 12 today. In Luke 12, verses 35 through 48, I'm going to give you a little context we're going to read from Jesus' longest teaching on money and generosity. So I have about a three-hour sermon today. I'm joking. I'm joking. People are like I got to get up out of here, but you go in the middle of this teaching. It's his famous line. Jesus says this. He says sell your possessions and give to the poor and give to the poor. But he books in this teaching with two parables and we're going to talk about the first one is called the parable of the rich fool. That's what we're going to talk about next week, but today we're going to look at the parable of the faithful servant. The faithful servant, now, these two parables they play a compare and contrast to each other. So it's really fascinating he got. The first one is a negative story about a rich man who was evil and hoarding all his wealth, and the second one is a positive story that's always good, positivity is good About a servant of a rich man who is good.

Speaker 1: 5:54

All right, let's dive in. I got a little bit of scripture today. Is that okay? Is it okay if I read the Bible at church? Okay, I just want to make sure. If it's okay to read the Bible at church. Okay, here you go, here you go, here you go. We got a little bit of scripture, starting in verse 35. Be dressed and ready for service. That sounds good. And keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding party, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him. It would be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. All right, interesting.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Here the disciples of Jesus are to be like servants of a wealthy aristocrat. But here's the twist. Check this out. Jesus always has these good stories. Check this out. He says Truly, I tell you, he will dress himself to serve. Speaking of the master, he will have them, speaking of the servants, them recline at the table. This is mind-blowing to the Jewish audience. They're saying that God in this story is going to come to the servants. That God who is all-powerful, almighty. His goal is to serve people. Interesting, let's continue. Jesus has this picture of God. God is a rich and generous master who takes the place of the servant to his servants. It continues. The Lord answered whom the master puts in charge of servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time. It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so. When he returns Truly, I tell you, he will put him in charge of all of his possessions, meaning, if this servant does a good job stewarding their master's house, the master will give them even more resources to steward.

Speaker 1: 7:44

Now check this part out, though. Here it goes. Jesus always has something for you to think about. But suppose, but just maybe. Suppose. One of the servants says to him my master is taking too long, taking a long time in coming. And then he begins to beat the other servants this ain't a good boss to work for Both men and women and he begins to eat and drink, to get drunk. He begins to waste the manager's resources and treat the people under his care terribly. Okay. Now the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of, and he will cut him into pieces, not literally, that would be really violent but assign him to a place with the unbelievers.

Speaker 1: 8:28

Then here's the summary line that Jesus says From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much will be asked. And so Jesus tells this story about how God is like a master who chooses to serve. He chooses to put on the servant's towels and he has the servants recline and he takes care of them. And then he tells the story of a master who treats his servants badly, poorly, wastes the resources badly poorly, wastes the resources. And why does Jesus tell this story? Because he says I want you to do to others as I do unto you. Jesus is the master who serves, and so we are to serve as well. We're to serve as well. Let's continue. Let's continue.

Speaker 1: 9:21

This radical idea Jesus is laying out here in Luke 12 has come to be called stewardship. Stewardship so Gregory Berner and John Cornyn put it this way the active and responsible management of God's creation for God's purposes. That's what stewardship is. And this idea was radical in Jesus's day and it is definitely still radical in our day. To steward things, to take care of things. So here you go.

Speaker 1: 9:52

There are three basic components to biblical theology of stewardship. All right. And the first one is this God owns it all. He owns it all, he owns it all. In Jesus's day there were kind of two basic views of wealth. The first was non-ownership. You see this in Greek philosophy, for example, if you read Plato's Republic in school the owners owned nothing. They owned nothing In his mythical utopia society. All the resources belong to the society as a whole. So you own nothing. But then the other worldview, the more dominant worldview, was the Roman worldview, where you had absolute authority over all your property. For example, if you had a barn and you wanted to burn it down, it's yours, burn it, do what you want with it. And that is still the majority view of the West today. That's how most of us view things. It's mine, I spend it, you know, it's mine, I get to keep it. But the Christian view that comes to us through Jesus in scriptures is this radical third way, not of ownership and non-ownership, but of stewardship.

Speaker 1: 11:00

Another word you can use is caretaken, to take care of things. Caretaken, god is the owner and we are the caretakers, the stewards, the stewards of it. And the first story in the Bible. We see this from the very beginning God creates the heavens and the earth, and that's a Hebrew way of saying God made everything, he made it all. He made everything. The universe is his creation. And then he creates a garden and he literally breathes air into the lungs of Adam and Eve and gives life as a gift. Then he puts Adam and Eve in the garden and check out what he says to them. He says to work it and what Take care of it. To work it and take care of it. This is what he says and this theme runs throughout the whole Bible, leviticus 25,. We see this the land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. Deuteronomy 10,. To the Lord, your God, belongs the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. So we see throughout Scripture, and Jesus here in Luke 12, says that God owns it all. Sure, we buy, we sell, we farm, we build, we invest, but we are the caretakers, not the owners of the house. Now, that's a big thought, that's a big idea. Right, here you go.

Speaker 1: 12:33

The second component is this we are entrusted by God with resources to do good. We're entrusted by God with resources to do good. God owns it all, but he entrusts us, entrusts you, entrusts me to steward it well. Many of us live under the false assumption that whatever money we receive from work, from an inheritance, from the lottery come on, you hit the mega millions. Baby is ours to consume. It's ours to consume.

Speaker 1: 13:02

Many of us live at, many of us live at or above the line of our budget and because we live at or above it, we constantly find ourselves what In debt, stressed out, hoping we have enough. When that unexpected thing happens, we didn't expect it, we didn't prepare for it, and now we're stressed out about it. And because of that, because of that, there's no breathing room. For what Generosity? If we're always so stressed about taking care of us, how can we ever take care of others? This is a big principle in being a Jesus follower. Here you go. We don't recognize, we don't realize that not all of our money is ours, but for some of us, but some of it is. We have to. We have to live to provide for our families, to put a roof over our head, food on a table and more to enjoy life before our God.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Now I got to say something here, because Paul says something to Timothy that I think is a good. If you want a memory verse. Here's a good one. 1 Timothy 6 says this. That's a good one. That's a good memory verse. See, this is saying God isn't a stingy investor, but he's a generous Father who wants to bless you. That is saying there is nothing wrong with going on vacation, come on. There's nothing wrong with having nice things, there's nothing wrong with taking care of things that you like and having those hobbies, but what it's saying is some of our money is also, though, to give away, to bless the poor and the needy, to the church and to the gospel. Some of it is to build for the future and for what God has put in our hearts and our families, our businesses, our kingdom dreams. We are entrusted by God with His resources to channel every dollar to the right place.

Speaker 1: 15:00

We are stewards. We're stewards, for example, if you have a teenage kid. Right, and you go out of town for the weekend and this is the first time that your teenager is in charge of taking care of the house. You know so you trust them. They've been great straight A students Come on, they great, and then, while you're gone, parent, they throw a wild party. Everyone up in the house is doing the stanky leg. You come back, you still smell the residual stink from it. You know they throw a crazy. You come home and the house is a mess. Wouldn't you be upset? Because what they were? What Stewards of your home? I got to say this.

Speaker 1: 15:45

I think one of the problems we see in the church is that the church does not steward the resources that God has given us. Sometimes we're so consumed about our own thing that we miss the people out there and we gotta separate. Here you go. The way we measure growth here at LVC is not how many people are in this room, but how much impact we can make out there. That's what growth is. That's what it looks like. Okay, here you go. Here you go. Which leads us to our final component of biblical theology of stewardship. God blesses us to give more, not just to have more, not just to have more. And you see this idea all throughout Jesus' parables on stewardship those who steward the master's resources well are given more for resources, given more resources to steward.

Speaker 1: 16:35

No one does a better job at working this principle than the apostle Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians. Check this out. He's raising money from one church for the church in Jerusalem, who's going through a severe famine in Jerusalem. And this is what Paul writes. He says this that sounds pretty good, doesn't it result in thanksgiving to God? That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? But you want to know what else? It almost sounds like. I got to say this it almost sounds like prosperity gospel. It sounds almost like prosperity gospel.

Speaker 1: 17:40

And if you don't know what prosperity gospel is, prosperity gospel is an American church heresy. That happened and you see this in Higa. A lot of people don't go back to church because of prosperity gospel teaching. They see pastors with nice cars and private jets and all, and then the people in their congregation are barely making it and they're struggling, and it leaves people disillusioned and confused. Like, would Jesus have his own private jet? I don't think he had a private camel. That was funny. I thought of that one right there on the spot. Okay anyway. So no, no, but here you go. The prosperity gospel is again a uniquely American heresy.

Speaker 1: 18:21

That put Crassley says you give to get. That is, you give to God and he will give you even more back, which ultimately means the motivation to give isn't out of a place of love, out of a place of joy, out of a place of man. God saved me. So I want to help someone else. God changed my life, man. I want to help someone else find life change. God transformed me. I want to use my resources, my abilities, my gifts to do something great. The motive behind it is if I give, god will get me more. So the motive is actually greed, not love, and we got to watch out for greed. That's what Jesus told us. Watch out, man. Greed is there, it's trying to get you. And so Paul is saying, though what Paul is saying. And so Paul is saying, though, what Paul is saying.

Speaker 1: 19:06

There's two words that separates Paul's theology from the prosperity gospel. And that is so that so that Check this out you will be enriched in every way. So that you can have more money, so that you can ride that Mercedes Benz, so that you can have that private airline. So you can no, no. So that you can be generous, generous. God wants to bless me so I can be safe and secure. Right, god wants to bless me so I can be happy. Right, god wants to bless me because he cares 100% only about my happiness. Does God want to bless you so that he can use you to advance his kingdom and his kingdom purposes?

Speaker 1: 20:01

See, the problem with LVC is this If life is always about us, you will always feel a little bit unfulfilled. If life is always about what you can get, what you can gain, how far on top of the ladder can you climb? You'll get to the toppest of the ladder. You will get to the mountain peak of success and find yourself empty. But when, but when? But when you get the, so that God do something in me so that I can help others. God, heal my brokenness, so that I can be a voice of hope to someone else. God, heal my trauma, heal my anxiety, heal my fear, so that I can share your good news to other people. When you get that, so that life gets a lot better. When you get that, so that you start to see it's not about me, but it's about Jesus.

Speaker 1: 20:52

And because, who is Jesus? He's the master who could have came in the house and said serve me, well, serve me here, give me this, give me that. But he's the master who took the servant's towel. He's the master who washed the disciples' feet the night before his crucifixion. He's leaving the line. He's saying, hey, hey, it's about serving people and stewarding well, what I give you. I'm getting ahead of myself let's go, let's go. Here you go. And stewarding well, what I give you, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go, let's go. Here you go. I'm excited about this. I'm excited about this because generosity is so important, and generosity is about just writing a big check and throwing it down. Generosity is how you view the world. So here you go. A lot of people. They're willing to be generous if someone asks. But would you be generous before someone asks? Would you help someone before they have to ask you? Would you go the extra mile before? Okay, here you go.

Speaker 1: 21:48

The prosperity gospel is not a lie, it's a half-truth. And what does our enemy do? He tells half-truths. The enemy is constantly telling us half-truths. That's why we see it in the back of the garden. Oh, surely you can eat from this tree. I mean, it's not that big of a deal if you do. No, no, no.

Speaker 1: 22:12

When we give and we are good stewards of what's been entrusted to us God often gives us even more. Our heartbeats, in Paul's metaphor, may come back to us in the form of more money. It may, or more opportunity, our relationship, our health, our happiness, et cetera. But if you give, god will give back a net increase to you in some way. As the saying goes, you can't outgive God, you can't outgive Him, you can't. But the purpose is not to make us rich, but to make us rich, but to make us more generous, to make us more holy Not to this big, bigger barns, like we're going to talk about next week, but to steward more of God's resources to the right place. Randy Alcorn puts it this way. He said God blesses us to raise our standard of giving, not our standard of living. So God owns it all. We are entrusted with resources to do good. God blesses us to give more and not to have more. If this is true, as radical as it is, it means the question is less, how much should I give? And more, how much should I keep? How much should I keep?

Speaker 1: 23:18

And in many church traditions, including ours, tithing is a central practice. Many people take their income, they calculate 10% and they give it to the church. Here you go. We just recently this is kind of a funny story we just recently started giving our daughter, our seven-year-old, an allowance, and the main reason why we were giving her allowance is because we wanted to teach her the principle of tithe 10%, save 10% and then live on 80%. We want to start teaching that to her now. That would be good for her to know. And so here you go, when we broke it down to her. So you're going to give a dollar to the church, you're going to put a dollar in your little savings account and then the $8, you can do what you want.

Speaker 1: 23:54

And then, kingsley, my daughter, is like so I can buy anything. She's like all of that is mine. And I'm like, well, yes, yes, it's yours, but no, it's not. At the same time, and she's like what do you mean? I was like well, you can go and spend that $8 on a bunch of candy, or you can save it and buy your cousin a gift one day, or buy a friend a gift. It's up to you. It's up to you how you steward it. And here you go.

Speaker 1: 24:20

If I'm teaching my seven-year-old that, I want to teach us all that, yeah, we have 80% and we can do whatever we want with it. But the question is what does God want us to do with it? What does God want us to do with it? And here, guys, I would be doing you a disservice as a pastor if I just said to you guys disservice as a pastor, if I just said to you guys, just do what I say, just go out and do it. I said it, you should do it. Now, that's not my job. My job is not just to tell you what to do and you should just do what I say. My job is to point you to Jesus. It's to point you to Jesus.

Speaker 1: 24:55

And so the way you know what Jesus wants you to do is you spend daily time with God. You spend daily time with Jesus. And when you spend daily time with Jesus, the funny part here's the crazy part when you begin to spend daily time with Jesus, you begin to hear His voice and understand His voice. Here you go. I truly believe and you may call me crazy and I'm okay with that I truly believe that God speaks just as much now than he did back in the Bible times. I truly believe it, that God is actively speaking all the time. The problem is we have so many notifications going off on our phones that we can't hear them. The problem is, google is a better resource than prayer, but God will teach you, god will show you, god will show you how to do this.

Speaker 1: 25:39

Here you go, and there's kind of this dichotomy, this thought that in married couples, in married couples, that there's someone who loves to save and there's someone who loves to spin. Today is actually Aaron and I's 11th anniversary today. Come on, come on, I'm a lucky guy, I'm one goofy looking dude compared to her, and. But when we were in pre-marriage counseling, the big red flag for our pre-marriage counseling was both of us like to spin. This could be a problem. So there's the dichotomies. There's someone who loves to save, someone who loves to spin. But I want to throw a third one. I want to throw a third one at us.

Speaker 1: 26:15

I think, as Jesus followers, everyday people who are learning how to become Jesus followers, that we need to get Not a savior, not a spender, but a steward, but a steward One who, as an act of apprentices to Jesus, is working to channel God's resources for good. But again, this raises all sorts of questions what do I keep, what do I give and where and to whom? And what is an appropriate standard of living? And where is the line between enjoying our life before God and wasting our resources? And what kind of car should I drive? And how many pairs of shoes should I own? A million questions, and I get how complex this is. And here you go.

Speaker 1: 26:51

On top of that, we live in Midlothian Virginia, where materialism is a real spiritual battle. Here it's a real battle keeping up with the Joneses and some of you. You have kids and other responsibilities and a place that has a high cost of living. So how do we weigh generosity to the poor next to our own responsibility to our kids and getting them through school and all the different things? Here you go. It's not simple. And here's another thing. I hate to break it to you.

Speaker 1: 27:19

When we look at our New Testament Bible, it doesn't spell it out for us. It doesn't say, oh, we'll do this. Instead, again, like I said, my job is not just to tell you to do, to go and just do what I said. My job is to point you to Jesus. And what the Bible writers would talk is called discernment. It's to ask for a gift of discernment to discernment. It's to ask for a gift of discernment to ask for God, give me discernment on how to use my finances, use my resources. Discernment to listen deeply to God with a singular desire to know and do His will. That's what it is. It's a discernment. It's asking God. God, show me what to do, show me how to live, show me what I should do with that.

Speaker 1: 28:00

The apostle Paul, I think, gives us six good guidelines in this process that I want to read out as he talked to the Corinthians. Here you go. He first said this our giving should be regular, not sporadic. He says this on the first day of every week. Each of you should set aside a sum of money. And again, this is the principle of the first things.

Speaker 1: 28:27

Principle of first things, guys, whatever we put first, it's going to chart the rest of our days. That's why it's so important for me. And again, you can take my, you do what you want with it For me. That's why I just don't think it's good to start your day with your phone. I don't think it's the best way to kick off your day. I think the best way to kick off your day is spending daily time with God, because that can set the whole course for your whole day. So here you go. Principle of first things. Second is proportional. Proportional. Each of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income. Meaning, the more money you make, maybe the greater percentage you give. You know you base it on that. The basic principle is here the more you make, the more you give. Third is sacrificial. It says they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability it should. You know, it's kind of a funny way to put it, but when you give, it should hurt a little bit.

Speaker 1: 29:14

Now I want to share a story, and this is definitely not like oh look, how cool Aaron and I are. But last year, last year, in January of last year, we do 21 days of prayer and fasting. As a church, we kick off the year with 21 days of prayer and fasting because there's something important about first things. First things are important. So we want to kick off our year at 21 days of prayer and fasting and during that 21 days of prayer and fasting, aaron and I both felt that we needed to make a big marketing push for our church. We needed to make a big marketing push for our church. We needed to market the church, get some mailers out there, to reach our community, because the mission the mission to help everyday people learn how to become Jesus followers is important. And we felt like God, we put that on our hearts and so in that 21 days of prayer and fasting, we felt like the Lord told Aaron and I both we felt this separately and again to get to talk about it to give $10,000 to this campaign, to this campaign which, to send out those mailers, costs roughly like $14,000 to do it. Okay, so there you go, so we get closer to the fall and I'm kind of stressing a little bit.

Speaker 1: 30:14

And then we actually did a whole financial class and got out of us. We paid all of our student loans. Come on, and we did all these different things and in that, though, we kept feeling like the Lord said give this money, give it, give it, do it, do it. And I was like Lord, you sure, because I'm giving my time and I'm giving. And the Lord said trust me, trust me in this. So here you go, it comes around. We write the check, we give it to the church, we pay for the mailer. So our big push we call it Feels Like Home Sunday, which we have another one coming up September 21st. I'm so excited about seeing everyday people learn how to become Jesus followers. But here you go. So we did it, and it was support, our Feel Like Home Sunday, and our church at that time was around 75 people, around 75 people. It was awesome. We got a lot of kids 75 people. We did that mailer, we had this big increase of attendance. We ended the year our church attendance at 125 people. That's awesome. That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 31:16

Okay, why do I share that story? Because it's not just about more people in the auditorium. The stories, the stories of those people who came because of that mailer. I'm talking about marriages healed. I'm talking about people finding freedom for some real brokenness in their lives, people finding community for the first time in a long time. And that $10,000, I don't even think about it, I don't. I'm not like, oh man, eat some more beans, kids, you know. No, I'm not even stressed about it, because my God is faithful. He's faithful, he's given me resources, not for me just to hold on to it, but to give away, to bless, to help other people. And that's the beautiful thing, church, when you begin to have gift activation, when you begin to see yourself as someone who's going to use my gifts to make a difference with people who are making a difference by doing something that makes a difference, dude, dude, your life, your life feels alive, your life feels meaningful, your life feels purposeful. It's a beautiful thing.

Speaker 1: 32:20

Here you go.

Speaker 1: 32:21

You can tell I get excited about this, but then it should be voluntary. It should be voluntary. You should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, which means you should make space and pray and discern Again. Pray about it. Pray about it. Talk to Jesus about it. Don't talk to me. Talk to Jesus about it, he'll tell you. He'll tell you. Then, be joyful. Be joyful, for God loves a cheerful giver. God doesn't want your grumpy money. Hear, hear God, bless him now and last, motivated by following Jesus, not religious duty, not religious duty, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became what Poor. Come on, guys, come on, this is beautiful, so that through his poverty you might become rich, meaning we see growing in generosity as an aspect of our training and honor Jesus and kingdom living.

Speaker 1: 33:23

We're not flying blind the guidelines, but the lack of clear rule to follow means we have to listen to the Spirit of God, regularly, come to a place before God and ask Father, thank you for the gifts of your resource to me. What do you want me to do? How do you want me to handle it? Here you go.

Speaker 1: 33:46

Many of us still don't listen to what God wants because we're scared of what he might say. He might say give, and it makes us feel uncomfortable. He might say help someone out, and it might make them feel like I don't know, should I. We still believe the myth that more money equals more happiness and we're scared that God may ask us to give our money away. And we don't yet believe that God is Father provider, which is why Jesus says in the very same passage I love this, do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. How wonderful is that. God is not a stingy investor maxing out his profit margins. He's a loving father who wants to bless you and form you, and to a son or a daughter who is, like himself, generous and joyful, and it's an honor to steward his resources.

Speaker 1: 34:39

Imagine this just for a second. Imagine this a church full of people who see everything they have as God's. No one in need goes unnoticed. Families are strengthened, missionaries are sent, the poor are fed and our community starts saying imagine if our community, imagine if Smoke Tree, imagine if Walton Park, imagine if all the community Charter Comp, imagine if they start saying this. Imagine if they start saying our community starts saying there is something different about those people. They're just so generous, they're so generous, they give, like they believe God is real. Like how cool would that be, how cool would that be. That's the invitation. That's the invitation. So here you go. My invitation to us this week is this to radically rethink our relationship with your resources, not as an owner or non-owner, but as a caretaker, and to begin a lifelong journey of learning to listen to the voice of your loving, generous and joyful Father and provider.

Speaker 1: 35:45

Next week, like I mentioned at the top of this message, we're going to close out this series and we're going to be teaming up with Compassion International. As we talk about ways that we can sponsor kids around the world, our church right now already sponsors two kids up with Compassion International. As we talk about ways that we can sponsor kids around the world, our church right now already sponsors two kids, two kids from Compassion International. And then we just actually, aaron and I just actually did it with our kids, and so every week, every month, we write them a letter and stuff like that. It's really awesome. It's an awesome way to just to be a blessing, and so, as a church. We're going to do it. We're going to do it and we're going to have ways that you can participate next week, because we want to close this series next week on practicing generosity, not out of just a good concept oh, that's a good idea, yeah, but doing something real, doing something meaningful.

Speaker 1: 36:25

Because I know this, I know this friends God generously poured out his love for us, and our reasonable response is to pour out love to others. Does that sound good? Let's pray God. Jesus, holy Spirit, thank you so much for your love, thank you for your goodness and your favor. We say more of you, jesus.

Speaker 1: 36:55

I just feel like the Holy Spirit's saying right now that some of us in here, we haven't fully experienced that generous love of God. Come, holy Spirit. There's just some hardships, yeah, some disappointments. I really feel that word disappointment Okay, I feel like the word disappointment in your caretakers, the people that are supposed to take care of you, didn't? Hmm. I just felt very softly that the Holy Spirit is saying that he's sorry for that. That's never what he meant. He didn't mean it to be that way.

Speaker 1: 37:42

Come, holy Spirit. I don't know that's for someone in here, maybe someone watching online, but yeah, he felt like you weren't taken care of and there's a burden, there's a hole there and the Holy Spirit says he wants to heal you of that, that he wants to pour out his generous love on you, that your life matters, that he sees you. He saw you when you were alone and he sees you now. Come, holy Spirit, come, holy Spirit. There's even this idea that God's a mean, wrathful God, wrathful, angry, and this idea of him being a servant wanting to serve is like what he wants to pour out blessings on you. He wants to serve you, love you, intimacy with you. He's not wagging a finger at you, he's actually just trying to hug you, get to know you.

Speaker 1: 38:54

Come, jesus. We thank you, jesus, for your love. We thank you, jesus, for your love. We thank you for your goodness. So, lord, help us love like you, help us be generous like you. We say help us view our lives on mission with you, our lives on mission with you. We love you in this place today, in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here.