Hands Open, Eyes Up

Good morning, everybody.

Are you excited about new things?

Does anybody get excited about new things?

! Good! Wow!

That is more than I expected in a Baptist church, alright?

I'm messing with you.

We are starting off a new series today,

a brand new series on Jesus on generosity.

I figure if we're going to talk about being generous,

we should probably stick to what Jesus has to say about it,

because that's probably safe, right?

Everybody says, when you go to church,

they're always asking for money.

Listen, that is not what this series is about.

Now, that might be what God does in your heart,

but this is about more than that,

and we're going to dive into what Jesus has to say

about living generously.

Imagine this.

It's a Baptist church.

What do Baptists like to do?

Wow, that is the first thing that came to your mind.

Well, you're right,

because that's what the story's about, alright?

Yeah, imagine it's after church,

and Baptists get together,

and we're eating,

and there's a church potluck,

and somebody comes in with a big bucket of fried chicken.

There we go.

Yes, that's the moment to say amen.

Still steaming, still crispy.

Smells like heaven.

Another person walks in with a bag of chips

that they grabbed out of the pantry on the way out the door.

Who was more generous?

The chicken?

Truth is, we don't know.

We don't know.

Just because it costs more

doesn't necessarily mean

that they were more generous, right?

What if that person who brought the chicken

is standing there at the head of the line

saying,

Hey, only one piece.

I saw you grab a wing.

Put that drumstick back.

Would they be generous?

Not so much, right?

Could be

that the person who brought the chips

actually sacrificed more,

maybe had a more generous spirit.

Maybe they gave out of their little

instead of their much, right?

There's a principle about being generous.

Sometimes we'll be the ones who bring the chicken,

but sometimes we'll be the ones who guard the chicken too.

Sometimes we'll give,

but we're going to put a lot of parameters around our gift.

Sometimes we're going to say,

Yeah, I want to support what God's doing

through this church and in this community,

but only if it works with how I want it to work.

Only if it slots in to how I have it in my head.

Sometimes we'll do that with our gift.

And so we have to be very careful

that we're not just giving,

that we're being generous.

Well, that is a heart problem.

That's something that Jesus can help us with.

So, let's go to Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

For the next five weeks,

God willing, we are going to talk

and take a hard look about what Jesus had to say

about living generously.

Luke chapter 14, verses 33.

Luke 14:33

Verse 33, this is kind of a series verse,

so we'll kind of keep referring back to this

throughout the next several weeks.

Every one of you who does not renounce

all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

Just thought I would drop that bomb on y'all this morning.

Unless you renounce everything you own,

you can't follow Jesus.

That's a hard thing to say, right?

That's a hard thing to hear.

It's a harder thing to live.

What in the world does he mean by that?

Well, let's look at that word renounce.

What does he mean by renounce?

That's not a word that you and I probably use every day.

It's a little uncommon.

What does it mean?

It means give up the rights to.

It means renounce control.

Give up control.

It doesn't necessarily mean we go

and take everything we have

and bring it to the church.

Number one, we don't want all your stuff, okay?

We don't want all your junk.

Don't think, you know, this is the garage sale

and we're going to bring all my junk to the church.

That's not what we're saying here.

What it means is we hold everything we have loosely.

We have open hands.

Open hands.

God might place something in that hand for a time

and then he might take it out.

We hold it all loosely.

We renounce our rights.

We give up our rights to all our possessions.

Listen, in other parts of the world,

that's a lot easier for them to do.

In America, it's a little bit harder.

It's a little bit harder for us to do.

Why?

Because we have capitalism in America.

We have this idea where you go out

and you earn what you get

and then you got it because you earned it.

Jesus says, hold on.

You go out, you earn what you get

and then you got it, but then you give it up.

You give it up to me.

Because if I want to take it, I can.

I'm the one who allowed you to get it in the first place.

And what you don't understand

is I might be able to replace it

with something far greater, far more meaningful,

far better than what you're holding onto so tightly.

So that's the idea behind

every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions

cannot be my disciple.

There's a truth here.

Generosity isn't about the size of your gift.

It's not about whether you bring chicken or chips.

It's about the shape of your heart.

Like everything else that Jesus has taught us

during the summer, if you were here,

I know a lot of you traveled and that's fine.

I did some traveling too.

But if you were here for most of the summer,

part of the summer,

you probably heard a sermon on stories of the kingdom.

And that was Jesus giving us his parables,

giving us these stories, these illustrations

about the kingdom of God

and how different it is than the kingdom of man.

And what it all came down to was,

where is your heart?

Is your heart for yourself or is your heart for God?

Is your heart for just me, number one,

or is your heart for others?

And so once again,

generosity does not come back to what you do,

but how and why you do it.

That's what generous living looks like.

Let's look down a couple chapters back.

Luke chapter six and verse 38.

Here's a principle on giving.

Since we're talking about generosity,

let's hit this idea of giving.

We just had an offering a moment ago.

You will very rarely see me put something

in the offering plate

because we have this in 2025,

this way to give online.

And that's a really nice, easy way for me to do that.

We go on the church center app

and every month I give 10% of my paycheck.

Sometimes we'll go ahead

and give more to special offerings

when there's disaster relief

or something going on through Texans on Mission.

We'll contribute to that as well.

But there's this idea of giving.

Why?

Well, number one,

we gotta keep the lights on in this place.

So we keep having something together.

We want staff to help lead us in ministries.

And so we try to pay them.

And there's a lot of cost that comes,

real world costs from doing God's work on this earth.

And so we collectively give.

I give, you give, we all give together.

So what does Jesus have to say about giving?

Luke 6, 38.

Give and you will receive.

Your gift will return to you in full.

Press down, shaken together to make room for more.

In case you don't understand what he was talking about.

You know, when you got something,

you shake it down, push it down.

I can pack more in there, right?

That's how God's promising to give back to us.

Running over and poured into your lap.

Sounds fun, right?

Imagine if that was money.

Press down, shaken together to make room for more.

Running over and poured into your lap.

You're like, bring it on.

You know what the cool thing is?

God's blessings sometimes look like money.

But a lot of times, probably most of the time, they're better than money.

Sometimes it's far better than what we could, what we think is the goal.

You know, none of us actually want money.

Did you know that?

I was thinking about this the other day.

You're looking at me like, speak for yourself, man.

That's wrong.

No, I'm serious.

You don't really want money.

You want what money can do for you.

You want what money buys you.

Or what you think money buys you.

We want what money can do for us.

There's really nothing special about that paper dollar.

Say, yeah, that's why you got to have it backed by gold.

Well, there's really nothing special about gold either.

It's a metal.

It doesn't really do anything for you.

It's not going to keep you warm at night.

It's not going to keep you happy.

It's what these things that we have assigned value to can buy you.

We think they can buy us what we need in this life to make us happy.

Jesus is saying, listen, what I will give you will make you far happier than this money that you're chasing.

Sometimes he'll bless you with money.

Sometimes he'll bless you with earthly possessions.

But all the time, his blessings will come back to us pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into our lap.

Oftentimes, we just don't have the eyes to see it.

Because we don't want his blessings.

We want what we want.

We want what we're pursuing.

So, it finishes up by saying the amount you give will determine the amount you give back.

The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

That is a kingdom of God principle there.

So, man, I just don't feel like I'm experiencing God's fullness.

How much time are you spending with God?

How much are you giving to God and then expecting back in return from him?

There's a principle there.

I hope we can wrap our heads around it.

So, there's a truth.

What you release in faith, God returns in abundance.

That's that whole idea of having open hands.

Renouncing our possessions.

Saying, God, I release this to you.

I'm trusting that you will return it in abundance to me.

God isn't saying.

Jesus isn't teaching that you can't have stuff.

He's saying your stuff can't have you.

Does that make sense?

Jesus, he's not saying that you can't have your boat.

You got to go sell it.

He's not saying you can't have your new cowboy boots that you just got,

even though you didn't really need them.

He's not saying you can't have stuff.

He's saying your stuff can't have you.

Several weeks ago, we talked a little bit about another principle that tied in this story.

And I want to bring it back, even though you've already heard it once before.

Maybe you'll remember it now if I've told it to you twice.

And I heard this story of this rich guy who had bought this brand new boat.

That's why a boat's on my head.

In my head.

But this guy was out.

And the youth activity, his church was going to go out on a lake and they were going to have fun.

And so he had these teenagers in his boat.

He volunteered, his brand new luxury boat, rich guy.

And they went out there on the lake.

And they're going around and having fun and playing, doing all their stuff, whatever they're doing.

And they get back and his boat is just torn up.

I mean, seats have holes in them.

The teenagers were pretty rough on it.

There's stains everywhere.

It was just rough.

They didn't treat it particularly well.

And you and I, if we had made that kind of investment and that kind of thing happened to what we just did, what we just bought and put out a bunch of money for, we would probably be like, what in the world?

What are you doing?

Can't you take care of stuff?

But he didn't have that attitude.

Now, those kids, yeah, they should have taken better care of what they were entrusted with.

But his attitude was, well, God, kind of surprised you let that happen to your boat.

But all right, whatever.

He just moved on.

Said, this isn't mine, it's God's.

I'm just holding on to it for God for a little while.

So his whole idea was he had released his big money purchase to God.

Said, God, I felt like you wanted me to get this.

I'm going to enjoy it while I have it.

But I sure am going to offer it up for the church to use.

And if that backfires on me, I don't see it as backfiring.

Because there's a bigger purpose than whatever purpose I had in mind for this boat.

Whatever purpose you have in mind for your stuff, understand that God has a bigger purpose in mind.

For you and your stuff.

So don't let your stuff have you.

You don't own what you can't lay down.

If you can't let it go, it owns you.

You don't own what you can't lay down.

If you can't let it go, it owns you.

Open hands don't mean they're empty hands.

It means they're available hands.

So let's see what Jesus says happens next.

Give and you will receive.

Your gift will return to you in full.

Press down, shaken together, make room for more.

Running over, poured into your lap.

The amount you give will determine the amount you give back.

So the principle he's teaching us here is abundance.

It's generosity.

God is promising to be generous to us.

Once again, hear me clearly.

That doesn't mean your bank account is going to triple.

Okay?

God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

The Bible teaches us that's a principle that means he owns everything.

There's nothing that is beyond his grasp.

God's never going to not be able to pay his bills, so to speak.

God's never going to go poor.

God's never going to run out of resources.

So if he truly is our father and we are his children, then he's going to care for his children

like a good father would, and he's going to be generous toward us.

That doesn't mean giving us what we want all the time.

Because how good of parents are we if we just give our kids what they want all the time?

Kids, do you want your parents to give you what you want all the time?

Obviously, the kids do, right?

Yes.

Parents, are you going to give your kids what they want all the time?

No.

That's crazy.

Anybody seen the movie Yes Day?

Don't do it.

Yeah, all the kids have.

My kids are always like, when are we going to have a yes day?

I said, never.

Never.

You're never going to have a yes day.

Sorry.

I don't trust you that much.

The idea is whatever the kids ask you for that day, you have to say yes to.

You can't say no all day.

Like, no, no.

My kids are too clever.

They would figure out.

Anyway, I'm not buying you a car when you're 10.

All right.

I'm not doing a yes day.

So listen.

We are generous with our children, but it doesn't mean we give them everything they want.

God is generous with us, but it doesn't mean he gives us everything we want.

He gives us everything we need and so much more.

Truth is, we can make it without most of the stuff that we have.

But God has allowed us to have more than we need out of his abundance.

Would you go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 8?

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

2 Corinthians chapter 8.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

We're going to be here for just a little while before we get back to Luke.

Look at verse 1.

2 Corinthians 8.

1.

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia.

What's going on here?

Well, Paul's writing.

Paul's writing.

It's his second letter that we know of to this church in Corinth.

And he's teaching them about another church.

Actually, a group of churches in this place called Macedonia.

The church in Corinth was wealthy.

By comparison, they were well off.

Corinth was a big city.

The gospel of Jesus had touched many influential, wealthy hearts in Corinth.

And a church had formed.

And they grew.

And they were doing well.

And they had money.

They had resources.

And so these are the people that Paul's writing to.

And he's using this group of churches in Macedonia, a different part of Asia,

who were at the other end of the social spectrum.

These were poor people.

They did not have the resources to get by.

They're scraping by every month.

And they're trying to pull together and make it through and follow Jesus at the same time.

And so he's going to teach them something.

These wealthy people, spiritually gifted.

But you know something else about Corinth?

They were hesitant to give.

Have you ever noticed that wealthy people are not always the most generous people?

Sometimes they be stingy.

It's true.

Sometimes they are generous.

Sometimes they establish foundations and charities.

And they go out of their way to give back.

It's not always the case.

And in Paul's experience, this church in Corinth had been very hesitant to part with their hard-earned resources,

of which they had an abundance, to give to keep the ministry going.

However, he had the opposite experience with the poor churches in Macedonia.

So he teaches them in verse 2 of chapter 8.

During a severe trial brought about by affliction,

this church in Macedonia,

their abundant joy and their extreme poverty

overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

I can testify that according to their ability and even beyond their ability of their own accord,

they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints.

Not just as we had hoped.

They went beyond.

Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God's will.

So we urged Titus, the pastor there, that just as he had begun,

so he should also complete among you this act of grace.

So he's talking to this pastor in Corinth and saying,

look, help your church see what these people saw.

Help them unlock this grace of giving.

This act of worship of giving.

That this church in Macedonia, out of their poverty, they gave.

They didn't just give because they were asked to.

They actually asked us.

They begged us to let them contribute to the work that God was doing.

Said, look, we value this.

It's important to us.

We don't have much.

But such as we have, we want to give it.

That is generosity.

Whether God has given you much or a little,

it's having open hands and saying,

God, let me be a part.

Use what I have.

I might have much, but it's little compared to you.

I might have little, and it's still little compared to you.

But God, even though you don't need what I have,

let me have the blessing.

Let me have the privilege of giving it back to you

and investing in what you're doing

and return it to me, God,

because I care.

It matters.

I value it, what you're doing in this world.

I value what you've taught me.

I value what you've done in my life.

I value what you've done in my family's life.

So I'm going to go the extra step.

That's what this church was doing.

And that's what Paul was teaching the church in Corinth

by using them as an example.

So he says,

Now, as you excel in everything,

flattery always works.

You guys are great at all this other stuff.

In faith, speech, knowledge, and in all diligence,

and in your love for us,

excel also in this act of grace.

First Baptist Henrietta,

can I talk to you all for just a second?

You excel in many things.

Many things.

Excel also in this.

Be generous.

Hold on to things loosely.

Whatever that looks like for you.

You take that to God.

You pray it out.

Sincerely.

Sit down with God.

Sit down with your wife or your husband.

And you figure out what God has for you.

Be generous.

Because if we release

instead of hold on tightly,

then God can take what we offer up to him

and make it so much more abundant.

So much more bountiful.

And we can see God work in powerful ways

if generosity takes over our heart.

So, verse 9.

There's a principle here.

Generosity is not about wealth.

It's about worship.

Look back at verse 9, would you?

I can't say back because we hadn't gotten there yet.

But he's saying,

excel also in this grace.

I'm not saying this as a command.

Rather, by means of the diligence of others,

I am testing the genuineness of your love.

That's a key verse.

Verse 8, right before we get to verse 9.

I don't want you to miss it.

He's testing the genuineness of their love.

He's saying,

I know that you love God.

I'm testing how genuine it is.

I know that you say you want to follow Jesus.

I'm testing how deep that runs.

So now we get to verse 9.

Ready?

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Though he was rich,

for your sake,

Corinthians,

for your sake,

first Henrietta,

he became poor.

So that by his poverty,

you might become rich.

Not in your bottom line,

but in the wealth

of the goodness of God.

Has his goodness

transformed you?

Has it made you nicer?

Has it made you happier?

Has it made you more friendly?

Has it made you more approachable?

Has his goodness

changed you?

God wants to be so generous to you

with his goodness,

but you got to release

what you're holding on to.

So he says,

though he was rich,

for your sake,

he became poor

so that you

can then become rich.

Generosity

is not about wealth.

It's about worship.

Jesus gave up

all his wealth.

And he was the most generous.

We should be able,

be willing

to give up

our wealth

so we can embrace

his generosity.

Follow his example.

We've got to renounce

our possessions.

Hold them loosely.

Jesus didn't just

give an offering

in the offering plate.

He gave himself.

Listen,

we need the offerings

in the offering plate.

Like I said,

we've got to keep

the lights on.

But God needs you

to give yourself.

You need you

to give yourself.

And we need you

to give yourself.

My family needs me

to give myself.

Your family needs you

to give yourself.

to be truly generous.

Jesus didn't just

give an offering.

He gave himself.

So if you come

to church today

and you go home

and say,

man,

the preacher was just

preaching about money again.

He just wants us

to give more.

You missed it.

That's not what it's about.

It's not just about

putting an offering

in the offering plate.

It's about giving yourself

and letting God

change you.

Solomon,

the wisest man

who ever lived,

teaches us this principle.

Would you go to

Proverbs chapter 11

Proverbs 11:24

verse 24?

Generosity is not

measured in dollars.

It's measured

in discipleship.

Are you becoming

a disciple,

a follower of Jesus,

or does giving back

to God just mean

dollar signs

in your mind?

Because if it means

dollar signs

in your mind,

that's not it.

you're missing it.

Proverbs 11

Proverbs 11:24

verse 24,

give freely

and become more wealthy.

Be stingy

and lose everything.

The generous

will prosper.

Those who refresh

others will

themselves be refreshed.

Here's another

kingdom of God

principle

that's so opposite

from how we think.

And if you get

your financial advisor

in here,

you say,

wait a minute,

that's not true.

If you save more,

then you'll become

more wealthy.

Jesus is teaching

if you give it up,

you'll become

more wealthy.

Why?

Because you've tapped

into the supernatural.

You've tapped

into the divine.

You've tapped

into the kingdom

of God.

The power of God

is unlocked

in your life.

And then he makes

you wealthy

in the areas

that matter.

His peace,

his grace,

his forgiveness,

his joy,

his comfort,

his stick-with-you-ness,

whatever that is.

But he sure does do it.

We unlock

the potential,

the power

of experiencing

God in our lives

when we're generous

and give

to him

and to others.

So,

there's a principle here.

If we refresh others,

God will refresh us.

If we refresh others,

God will refresh us.

You know the first way

that happens?

By refreshing others.

How many of you

have helped somebody

and you felt good afterwards?

Yeah,

it's not just me.

When you refresh others,

God instantly

often refreshes you.

And it keeps going.

God is generous

toward us

with his refreshment,

with his blessings.

Generosity isn't just

good life advice.

It's a principle

of God's kingdom.

It's a law

of God's kingdom.

It's opposite

of how you and I think.

God wants to break through

our selfish thinking,

our selfish mindsets,

to see

that if we refresh others,

God will refresh us.

this is generosity.

This is talking about

being a generous person,

not someone

who just acts

generous sometimes.

You understand

there's a difference?

You can be generous

sometimes,

but you're not

a generous person.

God wants to change

you,

not just what you do.

Can we get that

through our heads?

God is less concerned

more concerned

about what we do

and more concerned

about how and why

we do it.

If he can change

the why

and the how,

then what we do

will fall into his plan.

What we do

will be according

to his will.

Romans 12, 2

teaches us

that he wants

to change

the way we think

and then all

of a sudden

we'll understand

the will of God

when we start

thinking like he does.

So,

real quick,

generosity

is a lifestyle,

not a mood.

It's not just

a mood that strikes you.

I'm going to be

generous in this situation.

It's a way

of life.

It starts

with a moment

by moment decision

but it starts

with prayer,

going to God.

God,

change me.

Make me generous

like you've been

generous to me.

We're going to get

awkward for just a minute.

Can y'all handle that?

You've got it

in your bulletin

if you've got that

in front of you.

We're going to try

to do this

throughout the series.

I hope that y'all

keep showing up

even though we're

doing this,

alright?

I'm going to say

God gives.

You say

we give back.

I'm going to say

how do we give back?

You say

hands open,

eyes up.

You don't have to do the

can if you want to.

You really want to

get into it.

Alright,

here we go.

Ready?

God gives.

Hey,

that was good

for the first time.

How do we give back?

Yes,

that's right.

Alright,

we're going to try

to remind ourselves

of that every day.

God has given

so much to us

we should be so willing

to give it back to Him.

And how do we give

back to Him?

Not stingy,

not protecting it,

our investment,

not guarding it.

Don't you take

two pieces of chicken.

No,

we give back.

Hands open,

eyes up

toward Him.

Alright,

one more time.

Ready?

God gives.

We give back.

How do we give back?

Hands open,

eyes up.

Yes,

amen.

So,

what have we learned

from God's Word today?

Number one,

generosity is not

about size,

it's about surrender.

Generosity is not

about the size

of your gift

or the dollar amount

behind it,

it's about how

surrendered your heart

is regarding

your possessions,

the things you hold

the most dear.

And then number two,

sorry,

generosity does not

subtract,

it multiplies.

We think that when we give,

we see the dollar amount

leaving our bank account,

oh,

well,

we're down that much.

Nope,

God is gonna take that gift

and multiply it

and give it back to us

according to His kingdom

and what is most valuable,

truly the most valuable.

And number three,

generosity starts with Jesus,

not our wallets.

I'm not asking you

to get on board

with everything

that you see happen

in the church.

I'm not asking you

to get on board

with everything

about the person

who is in need.

What I'm asking you

to do

is get on board

with Jesus

because Jesus

taught us to give,

to be generous.

While we were still sinners,

Jesus gave Himself

to us.

Let us not hold

one another

to a different standard

than God holds us.

Generosity starts

with Jesus,

not just reaching

for your wallet.

Oh,

the preacher just wants

more money.

That's not what it's about.

If you think

that's what it's about,

you missed it today.

The preacher

wants you

and myself

to be generous

like Jesus

has been generous

to us.

So what do we do

this week?

Number one,

open our hands.

We said it

just a moment ago,

release it,

renounce it.

Say,

whatever I have,

God,

if you want to take it,

it's yours.

If you want me

to give it,

it's yours.

Release

our hands.

Release

our possessions.

And then number two,

lift our eyes.

We're looking at Jesus.

We're not looking

at ourselves.

Man,

look how much

I gave this year.

The IRS

is going to be

so impressed

with how much

charitable contributions

that I can claim

at the end of the year.

It's not what it's about

and they don't care.

But listen,

it's about Jesus.

It's about Him.

It's about trying

to please Him.

It's about recognizing

how much He gave up

for us

and being willing

to give it back to Him.

We're lifting

our eyes to Him.

Hebrews 12,

2,

looking at Jesus,

He's the author

and the finisher,

the completer

of our faith.

He's who it's about.

And then number three,

we start small,

but we start now.

Maybe you haven't

been giving.

I was telling somebody

else this earlier.

I don't know.

By the way,

I don't know who gives

and how much they give.

I have no idea.

I do not see that.

So I don't know

if you're giving or not.

If you haven't been,

it might be hard

for you to jump in

and start giving

this massive amount

of money every month.

Start with something.

Just like if you haven't

been reading your Bible,

read a verse.

If you haven't been praying,

pray a short,

small prayer to God

from your heart.

If you have not been giving,

give something.

Five dollars is more

than you were giving before.

One dollar might be more

than you were giving before,

kids.

Do something,

but start now.

Say, God,

I want to start this.

I don't know how

I should do this.

I don't know if I'm doing it right.

It doesn't really matter, right?

It matters how and why.

So if you want to be generous

back to God

like he's been generous to you,

he will bless you

and he will guide you

on how to do that.

So,

don't wait

until you're wealthy.

Start being generous.

Start now.

Start where you are.

Hands open.

Eyes up.

That's the posture

of a disciple.

It's the posture

of generosity.

Jesus said,

renounce it all.

Give it up.

Hands open.

Why?

Because that's how

he treated us.

It's what he did for us.

He left it all.

Humbled himself.

And gave everything

on our behalf.

Would we not do the same

for him?

Would you pray with me?

God,

make us a church

that gives back.

Hands open.

Eyes up.

And use that

to make Henrietta

look more like heaven.

It's what it's about, God.

We're not here

on this earth

just to get all we can

for ourselves.

We're not here

on this earth

just to

grow our bank accounts,

to increase

our

personal understanding

of our security,

that

we're never going to

run out of money,

everything's going to

always be okay.

That's not why

we're here.

We're here to see

you transform us

and then use us

to transform

our community,

our families,

the circles of life

that you've given us,

that you've placed us into.

So use us

to give back,

hands open,

eyes fixed on you,

and do a powerful

change in our hearts,

God.

Every one of us

needs to be more

generous.

I need to be

more generous.

It's not just

what I give,

it's how and why

I give it.

It's keeping

that perspective.

God,

change our hearts

this morning.

Listen,

if you don't

understand

what we're

talking about today,

it's okay.

It might be

because Jesus

has not

forgiven you

of your sins yet,

you'll understand

the debt of gratitude

that we feel

we owe him

because of what

he did for us.

I quoted that

verse earlier,

while we were

still sinners,

Jesus Christ

came and died

for us.

That's what

it comes back to.

You and I

are not naturally

good people.

We mess up.

We sin

willingly.

We disobey God.

But knowing that,

Jesus Christ,

the perfect son

of God,

came down to

this earth,

offered himself

up as the

sacrifice for

our sins.

He hung on

the cross

and he died,

taking all of

our sin debt

on himself

and paying for

it once and

for all.

But he didn't

stay dead.

He rose from

the grave

because he is

God.

He's truly

the divine

son of God,

more powerful

than you and I

are.

He's not like

us.

now he offers

forgiveness.

Saying,

I paid the

debt of your

sin.

You don't

have to pay

it on your

own.

You don't

want to suffer

the eternal

consequences of

your sin apart

from God.

Accept my

forgiveness today.

So if that's

you, I don't

want to leave

here today without

giving you a

chance to

accept Jesus'

forgiveness of

your sin today.

Would you slip

your hand up

and say,

if that's me

right now,

I'm not going

to call you

out or make

you uncomfortable,

but I just

want you to

slip your hand

up and say,

that's me.

I need to put

my faith in

Jesus today to

forgive me.

Would you

slip your hand

up now?

Thank you.

Thank you.

I assume most

of you in the

room have done

this at some

point in your

life and you

would call

yourself a

child of God.

And so if

there's something

else that you

need prayer about,

say, maybe I

need to be more

generous.

Maybe it's

something else that

God's dealing

with me about.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

God, you see

all the hands

and if I miss

some, you saw

them and you

know what's

going on in

their hearts.

Pray that you

would intervene

right now.

Let your spirit

and his voice

be so much

clearer, so

much louder

than any other

noise in their

minds.

In Jesus' name

we pray.

Amen.

Church, thank

you for being

here this morning.

If you would

like to come

down and talk

with Jared,

he'll be

down front.

I'm going to

ask, who

can I call

on real quick

just that

wouldn't be

uncomfortable?

Bruce, I

got you, man.

Would you

mind coming

up and just

closing us in

a word of

prayer and

thanking God

for allowing

us to gather

and worship

today?

We thank all

of you for

being here.

Don't forget

about Wednesday

nights.

This is the

first Wednesday

of the new

month and so

Wednesday night

on the first

Wednesday of

each new month

we're going to

gather in this

room kids,

teenagers,

adults.

By the way,

a bunch of

y'all been

showing up

Wednesday night

and I'm

grateful for

that.

Thank you

for being

here, for

valuing the

community and

fellowship of

our church

together.

So we're

all going to

be in this

room this

Wednesday at

six o'clock.

We're going to

gather for some

worship.

We're going to

have a lot of

fun and then

we're going to

dismiss the

kids and the

teens to their

area and the

adults are going

to stay in

this room and

we're going to

get on our

knees and we're

going to talk

to God.

You don't have

to get on your

knees.

You can sit

in a pew.

That's fine.

But we're going

to spend some

time in prayer.

How many of

you all believe

prayer works?

Yeah.

I think just

about every

hand in this

room is raised.

I do too.

And so if our

church comes

together as a

church and

prays, I think

God hears that

and he'll work and

he'll act

accordingly.

So let's do

that.

I know some of

you can't be here

Wednesday nights.

You've got work or

you've got other

commitments that pull

you away.

But if you can,

come join us.

Come join us at

6 p.m.

We'll worship and

then we'll pray.

Probably about 6.30

is when the prayer

will get started.

And so be here.

All right.

Thank you much.