Generosity: Money

Happy Mother's Day, everyone.

Is everyone celebrating, having fun celebrating Mother's Day?

That was very not enthusiastic.

Do we have a lot of disappointed moms out here today?

Happy Mother's Day?

There we go.

All right, just checking.

I have an amazing mother.

She's a very, very generous person.

I love my mom, and I think, you know, growing up,

I just saw again and again and again this generous heart in her.

This willingness to help out people when they had needs.

This willingness to, you know, if someone had a new baby,

to organize people to cook meals for them for weeks

so that they wouldn't have to worry about where's our food coming from.

And just this willingness to open up our house

and have guests come over and even move in with us.

And I think, you know, having this day be Mother's Day,

talking about generosity today is an amazing way

to remember our mothers in the way that they're generous to us.

And, you know, today we're talking about money,

which, you know, Mother's Day, talk about money, I don't know.

I didn't schedule that one.

But I think, you know, the theme of generosity

and on Mother's Day celebrating our mothers

by talking about generosity is a great way to honor them.

And so we're in Romans 12 again, just like last week.

And if you were not here last week,

Chris Thornton started us out talking about generosity,

and he did a great job laying the foundation

for why we're generous

and what it looks like for us to be generous.

So I'm not going to go over that foundation again as much this week.

So if you weren't here, you can check out the podcast online.

It's on the website.

But today we're going to look at our generosity.

Why should we be generous with our money?

And as we just read, we're looking at Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And I want us to see something at first,

that God's generosity motivates our generosity.

As we look at the first verse of Romans chapter 12,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

it says,

I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God.

And basically what Paul's talking about here

is he's referring back to the rest of the letter of Romans

that he's written so far,

which we've been discussing for a few months here.

And we talked about how we have rebelled against God.

We said, God, we don't want you in our lives.

We don't want to have anything to do with you.

We were separated from him relationally.

We were separated from him on a legal status.

We were guilty.

We were deserving of a punishment.

And God stepped in when we were in this rebellious state,

and he gave his life for us.

And he gave us this thing called righteousness

that Paul talks about a lot.

And we said this righteousness,

it's a new relationship with him,

a right relationship with him

that's given to us as a gift.

And he gives us this new legal status with him.

This, instead of being guilty,

we're free, we're innocent, we're saved.

Paul says it in another place,

in 2 Corinthians chapter 8,

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

that God shows his generosity to us,

that Christ, though he was rich,

he became poor for our sake,

that we, by his generosity, might become rich.

In God's mercies,

in God's salvation,

we see the generosity of God.

And Paul's saying that needs to be our motivation

for any generosity that we have,

because anything less than that is going to leave us short.

It's not going to give us the strength that we need to be generous.

And Paul says,

when we see the generosity that God has shown to us,

when we see the mercies that God has given to us,

there's only one acceptable response.

He says,

I appeal to you, brothers, by the mercies of God,

to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Now when he says bodies here,

he's talking about everything that we are.

We live as embodied beings, right?

Like, I don't do anything apart from my body.

I don't sit at home on the couch and think,

hmm, I'm going to visit my family in the States in my mind right now.

No, we have a word for what is happening there.

It's called not visiting my family in the States.

Because my body is in Hong Kong.

If I'm not doing it with my body, I'm not doing it, right?

We don't call up on the telephone and be like,

I'm making a telephone call with my soul

and hope that they understand what's going on, right?

Because we're embodied, we use our mouths and our ears

and we're there, right?

And so when Paul says, present your bodies,

he's talking about everything you are, you.

That's the acceptable response to God

and what he has done for us.

He doesn't say,

in light of the mercies of God,

empty your bank accounts, give it all to the church.

He says, no, give yourself to God.

And in some ways, I think it would be easier

if he just said, you know, give all your money.

And here's why.

Because that is something, we can do it,

we can achieve it, we can move on with life.

If we have enough money, we can get our names

put on some cool buildings because we paid for them to be built.

But really, it's just external actions

and it doesn't require any change of heart.

If he says, because of what God's done for us,

just empty your bank account, give it all away,

go on with life.

We can do that, we can move on.

We can check it off the box.

But he says, no, there needs to be a total transformation of us.

We need to give ourselves.

I was talking with someone this week

and he was actually saying,

you know, a lot of times in Hong Kong,

people have lots of money,

but they have skills and gifts and talents

that are more valuable than their money.

And a lot of people don't want to get involved in stuff

in the ways that they could be the most beneficial,

so they give their money

so that they don't have to give their skills

and talents and abilities.

Another time I was talking to a Hong Kong banker

and he said, you know, it's really easy for me

to just write checks and give to charities all day long.

I could write checks and write checks and write checks

until my bank account is down to zero.

But if I really want to make a difference,

if I really want to impact these organizations

that I'm supporting,

I have to get involved in strategizing with them

so that they can make the best use of the money

that I'm giving them.

He says, there's something more than my money

that's required if I really want to make an impact.

And that's exactly what Paul is saying here,

that God, he wants all of us.

He doesn't want just our money.

That's going to come with all of us.

But he wants our entire lives to be for him.

You know, there's a pastor in New York named Tim Keller.

And he has a story about a time

when he was talking with this lady

and she felt, she believed

that we have to be good people

and then God will accept us.

And that's what she had believed her entire life.

And this pastor was explaining to her,

that's not how it works.

Our salvation is totally dependent on God.

God does everything to save us.

All that we bring is our need for a savior.

And this woman, she had never heard this before.

It was revolutionary to her.

And she sat there and she thought about it

and she responded,

that is a terrifying idea.

And Tim Keller's like,

what are you talking about?

This is freeing.

This is amazing.

This is great.

And the woman said,

no, this is terrifying

because if there's anything at all

that I can do to contribute to my salvation,

that limits how much God can ask of me.

But if God does everything

that is required for my salvation,

there's no limit to what he can ask of me

because I completely, totally belong to him.

She nailed it.

And that's exactly what Paul is saying

right here at the start today of Romans 12.

That because God has saved us,

because he has reached out to us

when we were far away,

because he provided what we need for salvation,

and it's not dependent on us,

it's dependent on him.

This life that we have,

there's no limit to what he can ask of us.

And the only proper response that we can give

is to give our entire lives,

our entire selves to him.

But I think when we come to this point

and we think about what it looks like to follow him,

one of the things that's hardest for us,

one of the things that's most difficult for us

to give up is our money.

And I think there's a lot of reasons for this.

You know, in the States,

I don't know if they've got statistics like this

for Hong Kong.

I searched and couldn't find them.

But in the States,

the average Christian gives less than 3%

of their income away.

We serve a God who gave his life for us.

And yet we find it so hard to be generous

with our money.

And I think there's a number of reasons

that apply to us across the board,

whether we have lots of money

or almost no money,

for why we find it so difficult

to be generous with our money.

And so I've listed out some of these reasons

and I want to go through them with us today

and see why each of them doesn't really stand up.

The first one

is that far too many of us

have established far too many treasures

in this world.

And here's what I mean by that.

Jesus said,

wherever your treasure is,

that's where your heart's going to be.

So if we take all of our money

and we invest it in a certain company,

we're going to pay way more attention

to that company's stock

than we would otherwise

because our treasure is linked with that company.

In the same way,

if we take all of our money

and we dump it into a car,

we're going to pay lots and lots of attention

to that car

because it is valuable to us

because that's where our treasure is.

And for a lot of us,

we've spent our entire lives

investing our treasures,

our time,

our money,

our talents

into things that the world says are valuable.

Things that aren't bad in themselves,

but things that,

if we focus on them exclusively,

can turn our attention away from God

and towards them.

Things like education,

nice cars,

nice houses,

nice clothes.

not bad things.

But when we put our attention

on getting these things,

when we pour our treasures

constantly into these things,

our hearts follow where our treasures go.

And the more we invest our hearts

into these things,

the harder it is

to invest our hearts

into the things of God.

And as we follow our treasures,

we are drawn away from God

a lot of times.

And the more bound up

in the things of this world

our hearts are,

the harder it is

for us to begin to be generous

with God.

I think another reason

that we find it difficult

to be generous

is that we believe money

can bring us happiness

in a way that few other things can.

Money is powerful.

Money gets us stuff.

Money gives us security.

Money, we think,

will give us happiness.

There's an article

in the most recent edition

of Vanity Fair,

and it was called

Perfection Anxiety.

It was about how people

with lots and lots of money

think that lots and lots of money

will make them happy,

but really it just adds stress

to their lives

because everything

has to be perfect.

And once you get perfect stuff,

you have to buy

newer, better,

more perfect stuff

to keep up your appearances.

And he had this,

the author had this line

in the article.

It was deeply insightful.

He said,

we already secretly know

that money doesn't do

what it promises.

Nothing has ever given us

as much pleasure

as our pocket money

when we were 12,

or our first wage

at the end of that

first exhausting week

paid in folded cash.

Now we're 10 times richer,

but we're not 10 times happier.

If we had billions,

we don't realistically believe

that we'd be a billion times

better off.

As one art dealer said to me,

if you want to know

what God thinks of money,

look at the people

he gives it to.

We believe that having more money

will make us happier.

Maybe we don't believe

that having a billion dollars

will make us a billion times happier,

but we believe maybe having

a couple more million

might make us a couple times happier.

And so we seek it,

and we go for it,

and we go after it,

and we know,

if I'm generous,

there are things that I want to buy

that I can't buy.

There are promises

that money holds out to me

that I know I can't get

if I'm generous

and if I give stuff away.

And we hold on to this promise

that money has,

seems to offer us,

and we seek it,

and we go after it,

and we aren't generous

because we believe

that money will give us

these things.

And the author of that article,

he finished off the article

saying,

being able to afford

everything you desire

is not by any means

the worst thing

that can happen to you.

But depressingly,

and more profoundly,

neither is it the best.

This is vanity affair.

This is,

you know,

go out here to figure out

what insignificant things

are happening in the world,

right?

And they've got it figured out.

Money holds out this promise,

and it can't deliver on

the promise that it gives us.

But so many of us

hold on to this promise,

and we believe it,

and we spend our lives

seeking it

and going after it.

And it's empty.

It's hollow.

It's not going to give us

what it promises,

but because we believe

that it will,

we find it so hard

to be generous.

I think a third reason

that we find it hard

to be generous

is that we don't actually

believe that God

is generous with us,

or that he will be

generous with us.

You know,

Paul is saying here

in Romans chapter 12,

Romans 12 · chapter mention

the primary reason

why we should be generous

is because God

has already been

generous with us.

He has given us

his life.

He has saved us.

And I think far too many

of us far too often

think,

yes,

I can trust in God

to provide for me

spiritually,

but I'm not sure

that I can trust in him

to put food on my table

or a roof over my head,

so I need to go out

and I need to work

for those things myself.

And we forget

the fact that

everything we have

comes from God.

Even the fact

that we're able to work,

right?

Like,

I don't know how often

you guys think about this.

It's something that

I don't think about that much.

But like,

there was nothing

that we did

to make ourselves

be born into the situation

in life that we were born into.

We could very easily

have been born

into a tribe

in the middle of the jungle

where we never had access

to jobs

or education

or the outside world.

Yet God allowed

each of us

to be born into a situation

where we could come here,

you know,

be in the place in life

where we are right now

where we have roofs

over our head,

where we have clothes to wear,

where we have food to eat.

All of that

is a gift of his generosity

that we did absolutely

nothing to deserve.

And yet,

I think far too often

we're afraid,

what if I lose my job?

I can't give away

what I have right now

because I need to know

that if things go wrong,

I can take care of myself

later on.

And we ignore the fact

that just as God

has taken care of us

up till this point,

he will continue

to take care of us.

And I think

sort of building on that,

but I think it deserves

its own separate mention,

we also don't believe

that other Christians

in the church

will take care of us

if we're in need.

Historically,

one of the biggest reasons

that people in the church

were generous

is because they knew

that when they were in need,

the church would be

generous to them.

So if you have like

Alex, Billy, and Chris,

and each of them

has jobs and families,

and then Chris gets sick

and loses his job,

Alex and Billy step up

and they give to him,

and then he gets back

on his feet,

he's doing okay,

and then Alex loses his job,

and Billy and Chris

give to him.

And everyone's able

to be generous

to each other

because they know

when they have needs,

everyone else

will be generous to them.

But today we live

in this society,

in this world,

in this church culture

where it's all about

us as individuals

or us as individual families.

And we're afraid

to help out other people

when they're in need

because what if I fall into need?

What if I lose my job?

Will people take care of me?

And I think,

realistically,

most of us

don't trust each other

to provide for us

if we're in need.

I once heard a story

about this pastor

in California,

in the States.

And he said he was

at a meeting

with all of the elders

from his church,

and they were talking

about life insurance

and how each of them

has life insurance

their families

are taken care of

if something bad

happens to them

and they die.

And all of a sudden,

one of the elders

speaks up,

and he says,

hey,

I'm going to go out

there for myself.

I'm going to say this.

You guys can cancel

your life insurance policies

because if anything happens

to any of you,

I will take care

of your family

as if they were my own.

And another guy

stands up and he says,

yeah,

I'll do that too.

If anything happens

to any of your families,

I promise that I will

take care of them

as if they were my own.

And they go around

the entire circle

and every man in there

stands up and says,

if you guys,

if anything happens

to any of you,

I will take care

of your families

as if they were my own.

And they all went out

and they canceled

their life insurance policies

because they knew

that they had

each other's backs.

And they said

they were able

to take that money

and give it away generously

because they weren't

concerned about

what would happen

if something happened

to them

because they knew

this group of people

that was in that room

had their backs

and had their family's backs.

I think for most of us

in this room,

if we had someone

say that to us,

we'd be like,

no way.

I'll believe that

when I see it,

but since I won't

be around to see it,

I'll hedge my bets

and keep my life insurance,

right?

We live in this society

that is very individually focused.

We don't believe each other

that we have each other's backs.

It's sad.

And Paul says right here

in chapter 12,

verse 5,

that we are one body

in Christ

and individually members

of one another.

Now,

if we think about that picture,

we're all part

of the same body.

You know,

in my body,

sometimes I get injured.

In November,

I had my knees injured

for a couple months.

And the rest of your body

can't go on

as if nothing happened.

The rest of your body

adjusts

because of that pain

in your knees.

Your knees are something

you don't really think about them

until they stop working

like they're supposed to,

right?

You take your knees

for granted all the time

and then you get pain

in your knee

and every single step

is agony.

And so for a couple weeks,

I'd be walking along

and if there was a railing there,

I would grab onto the railing

and spread the weight,

you know,

around my arm

and upper body

because I wanted

to take the weight

off of my knees.

The stronger parts

of my body

picked up the slack

for the weaker parts.

If I was walking normally,

I'd try and readjust

the weight on my feet

from the way

I would normally walk

so that it would take

the stress off the parts

of my knees

that were hurting.

I was more likely

to sit down

and take a rest

or take a break

which took a hurt

to my pride

but it gave my knees

a rest

and my knees

needed that rest

because they were injured

because my knees

don't exist

in isolation

from the rest of my body.

My knees are a part

of the body

and if that part

of my body

is hurting,

if that part

of my body

is not working properly,

the rest of my body

needs to adjust

because of that.

And Paul says

in the same way,

we are one body.

Some of us are knees,

some of us are arms,

some of us are eyes

and ears

and toes

but just like in my body

when my knees

started hurting,

everything else

had to adjust.

He says

if someone here

is hurting,

we as the body

need to adjust.

We as the body

need to step in

and take care.

Those of us

who are stronger

in that time

need to step in

and help out

the ones who are weaker

in that time.

And there may be a time

when we who are stronger now

have trouble,

have pain.

But that's why we have a body

so that we can support

one another

so we can pick

one another up

so we can help

one another out.

and I think this is something

that we have lost

in the church today

where we don't understand

that we are a body.

We see ourselves

as individuals

not as individual members

of a whole.

And I think if we understood

that we are a body,

if we knew

that everyone has my back

and so I can have theirs,

it frees us.

It liberates us

to go out there

and to live life generously

because if something

happens to me

and I lose out

on all that I have right now,

I'm not actually losing out

because I have other people

who will take care of me

when that happens to me.

And I think

because we've lost

this view of us

as a body,

we lose out

on our opportunities

to be generous.

Another reason

we find it so hard

to be generous

is that we don't see

what benefit

we're getting

from our giving.

We live in a world

where the questions

we ask with our money

are what profit

will I get from this?

How will this benefit me?

And generosity

by definition

does not benefit us.

It's other focused.

You're not going to

give out your money

as an investment

and get it back

with interest.

It's a gift.

And we find it so hard

to do that

because we've trained

ourselves so much.

I give something

and I get something

in return.

And generosity

is about I give something

so that someone else

can get something.

And our mindset

is so totally different

from what's required

for true generosity

that we can't wrap

our heads around

the idea

of giving something

away to help

someone else.

And there are

definitely more reasons

but the final one

that I came up with

for why we find it

so hard to be generous

is because being

truly generous

requires us

to get involved

in the lives

of other people

in ways that are

often discouraging

frustrating

and uncomfortable.

A lot of times

we can hear about

a need

and think

the easy thing

to do is to just

pump money into this.

Give money.

Give money.

Give money.

But a lot of times

people's needs

aren't due

to a lack of resources.

It's due to a lack

of understanding

of how to use resources

when they have them.

Or there's other issues

that underlie

the lack of resources.

resources.

And so just pumping

resources and money

into the situation

doesn't actually

fix the problem.

A lot of times

it can make it worse.

And we can give money

and give money

and give money

and find out

that the problem's

still there.

And then it becomes

frustrating

because I've done

so much for this person.

I've given so much.

Why isn't the problem

fixed?

And a lot of times

what's needed

for our generosity

is for us to step in

to get involved

in their lives.

You know,

Paul says in

chapter 12,

verse 13,

contribute to the needs

of the saints.

We can't know

what the true needs are

in each other's lives

unless we're deeply involved

in each other's lives.

We can see

surface level things

that appear to be needs

and try and address those

without getting deeply involved.

But a lot of times

they'll leave us frustrated.

to truly know

what the needs are,

we need to get involved

in each other's lives.

And when we do that,

it gets messy.

And we get dragged

into these messes

that we didn't create

that we're not responsible for.

It's frustrating.

It's uncomfortable.

It's messy.

But it's what's required of us

if we're going to be

truly generous,

if we're truly going

to look out

for the needs of others

and not just give

to satiate our guilt.

for having more

while they're having trouble.

One example of a time

that this could happen is,

and I've got to be careful

with this because there

might be people in here

who are struggling

with this issue,

but I know it's a very

common issue in Hong Kong

is that Filipino maids

will come over here

to provide for their families.

And they want to take care

of their families

and they want to give,

give, give, give, give, give.

But they've never been taught

how to budget.

So they give, give, give, give, give,

and give away more

than they actually have

and then they fall into debt

and they have trouble

with loan sharks.

And you know,

this is a situation

if you hear about it

and you think,

oh, this person's in debt,

I have resources,

I can help them,

and you give money,

but then the next month

you hear that they're in debt again

because they've just kept

giving, giving, giving,

giving, giving.

And what's needed there

is not just someone

to pump money in.

The issue isn't a lack of resources.

The issue is not knowing

how to budget,

not knowing how to say no

when people ask for money.

And what that person,

what that helper really needs

is for someone to step

into their life,

to come alongside them,

to say, you know,

here's how you budget money.

If someone asks you for money

and you don't have money,

it's not a shameful thing

to say, no,

I can't give you anything

because I don't have

anything more to give.

But that requires us

to step in to get messy.

And I think a lot of times

it's far too uncomfortable for us.

It's far too difficult.

And really,

if we're trying to be generous

for ourselves

and not for the good of others,

that type of generosity

will crush us.

If we're trying to run

on our own motivation,

our own strength,

and not looking at God

and His generosity

as our motivation

for our generosity,

that type of generosity

will crush us.

And God,

He wants us to be generous.

He wants us to give our money,

but He also wants us

to give ourselves.

Right?

We said that already.

But there's a part

of His mercies

that Paul talks about

earlier in the book of Romans

that I sort of left out

earlier in the sermon

when I was talking

about God's mercies.

Paul talks a lot about

God's mercies towards us

as individuals.

But he also talks about

God's mercies

to the universe as a whole.

In Romans chapter 8,

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Paul says that God

is in the process

of making all things new.

That God,

that God is going

to restore creation.

That creation knows

about this

and it's crying out

like the pains of childbirth,

just waiting for something

new to be born.

that it feels

this,

this weight,

waiting for something.

Waiting for something

that it knows is coming,

but it doesn't know when.

And it knows

it's going to be amazing.

And someday,

God's going to finish

this work

and He's going to make

all things new.

But it says today,

He's calling us

and inviting us

to be a part of that process.

He's inviting us

to join Him

in what He's doing.

So when we say

we're,

we're inspired

by God's mercies,

yes,

it's God's mercies

towards us as individuals.

The fact that He's saved us

when we didn't deserve it.

The fact that He's purchased us.

But it's also

His doing

of making all things new.

There are a lot of things

that we as a church

want to do.

We want to reach out

to the western side

of Hong Kong Island.

We want to be in the schools.

We want to be in the universities.

We want to be involved

in homeless ministries

and inner city ministries.

And we want to,

we want to be out there.

And again,

these are things

that I think are awesome things

for the kingdom.

I get excited

when I hear about the things

that we as a church are doing.

And it's true,

God doesn't need us.

God doesn't need our money

to do the things

that He's going to do

in the world.

But there are certain ways

that we as a church,

Watermark,

want to be a part of that

that we can't do

without funding.

And so I want to,

I want to close today

by dreaming a little bit.

I want to think about

what could it look like

if we as a church

decided to be generous.

If we as a church

decided that we wanted

to partner with God

in what He's doing

in Hong Kong

and around the world.

And statistically,

I know there are many

exceptions to this rule

and a lot of them

in this room,

but statistically,

the more money you have,

the less likely you are

to be generous with it.

And so I want to dream big.

I want to dream

of what we could do

if we gave lots of money away.

And there are things

that I'm going to say

that some of us,

you know,

we can't do as individuals,

but if we feel passionate

about it,

we could get together

and these things

could become realities.

Right?

So I'm going to dream big

and then we're going

to close up.

The first thing

I want to throw out there,

church planting.

Watermark is a part

of a church planting network.

I don't know

if you guys know this,

but we're part

of a church planting network

that has a vision

of planting over 200 churches

in the next 10 years

in the Asia

and Australia region.

That's on average

over 20 churches a year

for the next 10 years

and hopefully

many, many more

after that.

These churches

will be in cities

that we as a church

cannot reach

from Hong Kong.

They'll be spread

all over.

They will reach

hopefully thousands,

tens of thousands,

maybe even hundreds

of thousands of people.

And every single one

of them requires

funding to get started.

What if someone

here today said,

I want to adopt

a church plant.

I want to sponsor it

for the first few years

until they can become

self-sustaining.

I want to give

or get a group

of us together

and together

sponsor a church plant.

And God could use

our generosity

to reach thousands

of people

around the world

in these new churches

that are starting

in countries

from Japan

to Thailand

to Australia

to Singapore.

All over.

Imagine the impact

that it could have

if we were generous

with what God

has given us.

Or another one.

I don't know

if you've realized it,

but we have a group

of Nepali kids

that come into church

here every Sunday.

And these kids

come from an area

of town

that's in desperate

need of educational

reform.

These kids go to schools

where they're taught

verbally and non-verbally,

you're a problem,

not a person.

These kids go to schools,

even though many of them

are very bright kids,

they go to schools

that crush any desire

for them to learn.

They go to schools

where, you know,

some kids in these schools

should be held back

because they haven't

learned the material yet,

but the teachers

don't want to deal

with discipline problems

that will be in the class

next year if the kids

stay back,

so they just push them

on to the next grade.

And kids in these schools

can be in sixth grade

and not even know

how to read.

This area of town

is in desperate need

for education reform.

They need a school

that will come in

and will teach the kids

that you have value

as a human being,

that you can contribute

to society

when you grow up,

that God loves you

and you have worth.

And there are people

in this church right now

who have a vision

and a dream

to start a school like that

in that neighborhood

that can reach out

to these kids,

that can drastically

impact their lives,

that can transform

a community.

But here's the thing,

the people with this dream

are teachers.

And starting a school

like this in Hong Kong

is very expensive,

a lot more than a teacher

could sponsor themselves.

Even if we found teachers

who could raise support

themselves

and come over here

and teach at the school,

you still need a venue,

you still need to get it

registered by the Hong Kong

government,

you still need to get

curriculum.

It's expensive.

But what if someone here

said,

I want to sponsor

a school like that

for the first two years.

I want to make

this dream a reality,

I want to impact

this neighborhood.

It's not something

that we're going to see

immediate results from.

It's not something

we're going to see

probably in the first

couple of years

results from.

But it's something

that in the course

of a generation

can totally transform

a community.

It's a way that God

can use us to be a part

of something much bigger

than ourselves in Hong Kong

if we decide

to be generous people.

Or maybe we put

these two dreams

of church planting

and starting a school

together and someone

either with lots of money

or lots of connections

says,

what if we just go

to that neighborhood

and we buy a building?

And inside that building

we start a school

and inside that building

we can start a new church.

And with any

leftover space

in that building

maybe we can put in

businesses that will

provide jobs for the community

or businesses that will

provide services

that will help the community

or affordable housing

for people in the community.

It would be amazing.

It would be awesome.

God could use our generosity

to transform

these communities.

I think, you know,

if that happened

it would be amazing.

We'd need a word

that's so big

that it's a word

you only use

when you have

no word for something

like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

I think these are

awesome, huge, big dreams.

They're possible

because we serve

an awesome, huge, big God

who has shown his love

to us in awesome,

huge, big ways.

But this type of generosity

isn't something

that we can just

force ourselves into.

Something we need

to understand

God's mercy to us.

We need to understand

the part that we play

in the work that he's doing

in the world

and see how he's inviting us

to be a part of it.

I just want to close

with that quote

from Vanity Fair again

because I think

it's deep.

I think it's

really, really

eye-opening.

He said,

if I can find it,

it's in here somewhere.

Well, he said,

we already secretly know

that money

can't give us

everything that it promises

to us.

no amount of money

has ever given us

the same amount of joy

that we had

when we had pocket money

at 12 years old.

No amount of money

has ever given us

the amount of joy

that we received

when we got that first

paycheck in folded cash

after our first

hard week of work.

We're 10 times richer,

but we're not

10 times happier.

And realistically,

we don't believe

that if we were

a billion times richer,

we would be

a billion times happier.

If you want to know

what God thinks

of money,

look at the people

he gives it to.

Let's pray.

Father,

we thank you

for your generosity

to us.

We thank you

for the fact

that you have loved us

when we did not deserve it,

that you have purchased

our salvation

entirely

at a cost to you

and completely

freely for ourselves.

We pray that we would

recognize the call

that we have

to give our lives,

our entire lives,

to you.

And that along

with our lives,

we would be generous

with our money.

We would not live

in fear of what

would happen

if something happened

to us after we were

generous.

That we would see

the work you're doing

in the world,

that we would partner

with you in that,

and that you would

use our generosity

to transform the city

of Hong Kong,

the continent of Asia,

and the entire world.

And in Jesus' name,

Amen.