January 28, 2024 / Generous Giving

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead

pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth

for the life we're searching for. Well, we're glad to be with you today. Thank you so much

for being in our service today. We're talking about the fourth practice that changes everything

in a person's life. And I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter

two today. We're going to talk about generous giving. You know, at some point when you began

to talk about generosity or generous giving, it becomes part of the conversation to say,

this is what's changed my life or it's changed someone else's life or some situation that

we're aware of. Generous giving does that. In Acts chapter two is the opening of the

New Testament church, opening days. They were practicing some amazing kinds of habits that

were allowing them to grow in faith and knowledge of Christ. And part of that was generosity

woven throughout the pages of the book of Acts. You have generosity. Let's stand together

for just a few moments as we read this passage, Acts chapter two, beginning in verse 47. This

is after Pentecost, after Peter preached this great message at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit

has fallen on all these individuals. Many have come to faith in Christ. In fact, verse

41 says about 3000 souls were added on that day of Pentecost. So this is kind of a, a

pinnacle of the opening chapter of the New Testament church. And then it begins to talk

about what they began to do immediately on the other side of this great moment of Pentecost.

It says in verse 42, they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching

and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a

sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all

those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling

their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day

by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they

were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, having

favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who

were being saved. I just love this text. I love reading about the New Testament church

and I love reading about the zeal and the passion and enthusiasm that are coming out

of these opening moments. And I so pray that we can grasp how the spirit was moving then

and how he wants to move now. Father in Jesus name, show us by the power of your Holy Spirit,

all we need to know about this text and our lives and how they intersect. So that allow

us to be like those people, generous followers of Jesus Christ. We ask this in Jesus name

and everybody said amen. Please be seated if you would. Well, generosity is a pretty

big deal. And I want to define it as we walk through this because you see this all through

the church. And by the way, as I start this message, I want you to know that I believe

that we are in a very, very generous church. You need to know today I'm not preaching this

message out of a sense of need. We don't have any particular need right now that I could

say, oh, we need you to be generous about this or about that. That's not why this message

has happened today. And we're not saying this because we think there's some failure in giving

in some part in our church. If anything, we look back and say, God, what an incredible

blessing the generosity of this church has been. He's done so many things and we'll talk

about that in just a few moments. And we'll take some time just to thank God for how he's

provided. And in the middle of this message, I'm also going to give you a very important

announcement that has a great deal to do with the generosity of God towards his people.

And so you want to make note of what I say in just a few moments. I don't think you're

going to be able to miss it, but nonetheless, I want to warn you. So as we walk through

this series that we're in, we've named four things that are key practices that change

everything in your life. We began four weeks ago with the principle of corporate worship.

Worshipping God individually and worshiping God corporately was the mainstay of the New

Testament church. It's why they gathered together to encourage one another and to edify and

glorify God. It's a reset of everything that we do in the course of a week where we are

reminded on the first day of the week that the priority of our lives is to follow Jesus

Christ who is worthy of all praise and all glory and all honor. And when we gather, I

hope that you open up your heart and are reminded that we live for him. Everything is about

him, corporate worship. Secondly, we looked the second week about connecting with other

people, the importance of what fellowship with one another really is, how we sharpen

one another. Iron sharpens iron, we said. And we see how the New Testament church was

filled with believers that were challenging one another and encouraging one another and

praying for one another in a huge, huge way. And in a world that doesn't really know where

it fits, the church of Jesus Christ is where every believer fits. If you ever wonder where

are your people and you're a believer in Christ, the church is your people and that's who you

need to turn to and the church needs to be a great advocate for your spiritual walk.

So that's the second habit. The third habit is serving. Those who follow Christ and all

he did know that his life was about not being served but to serve and to give himself as

a ransom for many and he led his disciples to serve. Servanthood is so incredibly important

and now this fourth practice, this fourth habit that changes everything is giving. I

can't imagine my life without these four things being a constant, a constant practice in my

life in various forms. Worshipping him, connecting with other people, being able to serve somewhere

in the body of Christ for his glory and giving faithfully and even generously as he leads.

All those things are key pieces of my spiritual growth and they'll be key pieces of your spiritual

growth as well. Let me define generosity as we walk through this message. Generosity is

a quality of being kind and selfless and sharing money or valuables with others. It's often

attributed to God and his loving, sharing, kind nature. John 3.16, one of the most famous

verses in all the Bible talks about how giving God is. For God so loved the world that he

did what? He gave his only begotten son that whoever believes on him should not perish

but have everlasting life. God sets the bar high. He gives generously. He's a giving God.

And when we talk about generosity, we need to talk about reflecting the character of

God in our financial practices and in our giving and in our generosity. So the New Testament

church, this text here, talks about the kickoff, the opening quarter, if you will, of the New

Testament church and the regular practices that they settled into. You can see them in

verse 32. When you look at verse 42, you'll see the corporate worship, that is they gather

together. You saw them connecting with each other. There was community taking place. The

Bible talks about how they were encouraging one another and praying for one another. All

those things that I talked about a moment ago, those were found in verse 42 and also

generosity. Generosity is not an afterthought. It's something that comes out of the health

that was happening in the New Testament church. So let's see three things about generosity

in this text today. First of all, generosity is built upon spiritual health. Spiritually

healthy people learn to practice generosity above and beyond all other kinds of giving.

It says in verse 43, everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs

were taking place through the apostles. They were seeing God answer prayer. They were seeing

the fellowship of the believers taking place. They were worshiping the resurrected and living

Lord Jesus Christ. All those things describe a spiritually healthy environment. That's

where they were. They were practicing spiritual health. They were being reminded of why the

church gathered. By the way, the Church of Jesus Christ or Christianity as some call

it is not a religion. It's a group of people following a living Lord Jesus Christ. Some

people want to make it out to be a religion, but that's not what you see recorded in these

pages. They did not get together and say, we need to start a religion. We need to organize

it. We need to make sure that everybody knows our rules and laws and all those things and

we're just going to build monuments to somebody or even to ourselves and we're going to call

it a religious system of some kind. Hey, let's pack Christ's name on it. That's not how the

church began. The church began with a group of people that were so enamored in following

Christ, so in love with Him because of His obvious love for them that they met together

to refresh and renew and remember all that He had done for them. That's what was happening.

Very natural, very grassroots, very normal for the New Testament church. So that's what

was happening and all that they'd seen happen was fueling this eventual act of generosity

that you see in these pages. They'd watch Jesus live. They'd watch Him minister. They'd

watch Him die. They'd watch Him rise again. They'd watch the promise of the Holy Spirit

be fulfilled and He came down upon them and with them at Pentecost. So now they're growing.

They're walking with Christ. They're praying. They're experiencing the life that Jesus called

them to on a whole different level. In fact, it says in John chapter 14 verse 12, Jesus

John 14:12

is speaking to the disciples saying, I must go away. And when I go away, greater things

than these you shall see because I go to be with the Father. And you'll have the presence

of the Holy Spirit. You will in multiple forms have many people who are seeking to do what

I was doing on this planet and you'll see greater things when I'm gone to be with the

Father, greater in terms of magnitude or scope and everything that Jesus said was coming

to pass in this New Testament church and it was amazing. And one of the lessons they were

learning was the lesson of generosity. It's not the only lesson, but it was a big one.

Now what we're talking about in Acts chapter two is not tithing. Tithing is in a different

portion of the scripture and we won't speak a lot about tithing today other than to say

that many of these were Jewish believers who had already committed to that kind of giving

in their Jewish worship of God, Jehovah, to God. And in their worship of him tithing was

a part of what they do. It's evident there was already established a practice in those

Jewish believers and even more so in their dedication to Christ. The teaching of Jesus

as you read the Bible affirms the tithe, tithe that does not remove the tithe. Jesus came

to fulfill the law, but he also came to help us know how to live life in every way. We

all as we read the scriptures understand that the Bible says that the tithe belongs to the

Lord. When I receive a paycheck, the first thing I remember is what I was taught and

what I read in the Bible that the first 10th belongs to the Lord. It's a lot easier to

learn that when you're little by the way. One of my stories is my dad gave me 10 dimes.

I got a dollar a week for allowance by the way. A dollar a week for allowance. That doesn't

sound like a lot, but that's a lot in a five and dime store where you sell candy and buy

it for a penny apiece. Anybody remember a five and dime story? Anybody remember penny

candy? You could get sick on that stuff for a dollar. You know you could do that really

easy. And I can remember he gave me my allowance in dimes and I used to wonder about that.

Quarters were bigger, they were shinier. A silver dollar would be even better, but he

gave me the dimes and I learned later on the reason he gave me the dimes is so I could

easily take a dime and give it to the Lord. And I remember putting a dime in the offering

plate or in my envelope. We were Baptist so we did it with envelope. Put it in the envelope.

Every week when I was like six, seven, eight years old it became a practice. And as I grew

older in life I realized it was a spiritual practice. It was a wise practice and I learned

God provided for me in ways that I had no idea he would do when I was worried about

that dime. I didn't need to be worried about it. The tithe belongs to the Lord. As he provides

for us then we return the tithe to him. Now you see the phrase there where it talks about

the apostles teaching. That's part of what they were talking about as they met together.

And what this is is the apostles were refreshing and rehearsing to all that were there what

Jesus had taught them. The scrolls with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The gospels had not been

all penned yet. They were not all together yet. So these apostles were teaching them

what Jesus had taught them. There's a passage in Matthew chapter 23 verse 23 where Jesus

Matthew 23:23

is rebuking the Pharisees and the scribes. And I want you to notice what it says because

he rebukes them for their heart but also commends them for their giving. It says, Roll you scribes

and Pharisees hypocrites for you tithe meant and deal in common. These are small herbs

that are part of what they gave as a result of all that they had grown in their garden

or all that they had. You tithe meant and deal in common and have neglected the weightier

provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. But these are the things you

should have done without neglecting the others. In other words Jesus is not saying oh you

shouldn't even think about the tithe. He was saying you should think about your hearts

as you give a tithe. Jesus gave us some good indications that the New Testament church

was to practice this idea of tithing. We teach that here at our church. All of our deacons

commit to that. Our teachers are to commit to that. Our staff obviously commit to that.

We just believe God blesses that in huge huge ways. But that's not what this passage is

talking about. This passage is talking about something above and beyond that. It is generosity

and generosity is going beyond the tithe. Generosity is something that God moves in

our heart to do when a need is presented or we're made aware of or even if we don't know

why but God lays on our heart to do a certain thing, to give a certain thing. Generosity

happens as a result of obedience to that. And the reason I want to mention tithes to

you today is because we won't experience generosity if we haven't learned to give regularly in

the first place. There's something about that regular giving that lets me trust God enough

that when he leads me to do something above and beyond I'm able to do it because I'm already

in the practice of giving. And I'm aware there are people today that haven't yet learned

to trust God for their finances. Enough to tithe and I get that. There's a process sometimes

with people but it's such a great lesson to learn. It's such an amazing thing that God

does in providing for us and getting us to trust him in that way. So all this to say,

these people were walking in spiritual health. They were worshiping together. They were,

they were fellowshiping. They were understanding the word, the teachings of Jesus. And then

there is another thing that God began to unfold with them in the way of generosity. And that's

where I want you to see this second piece that's in Acts chapter two. Generosity flows

out of obedience. Notice what it says in verse 45. And all those who had believed were together

and had all things in common and they began selling their property and possessions and

were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Now let me be clear about this

text right here because so many have taken this text and said a variety of things about

it that are not true. What was taking place was a series of acts of obedience to the Holy

Spirit. Now remember the Holy Spirit has fallen upon them. They're amazed by his presence,

his power. And they're amazed by the fact that when they're all gathered together, they

sense his presence. And what's happening is he's leading them to do these things and they're

even selling property and everything else they're led to do. What I want you to also

see is that this was not a system of coercion or shame. It's not done out of a sense of

privilege or to even the levels of what people had or didn't have. It wasn't communism. It

wasn't communal living. All those things I've heard point into this text as that's a verification

for why we should be communists or have communal living. Let me just say it's saying none of

those things. But it is saying that when the Holy Spirit led them to sacrificial giving,

that they were following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. If you jump down to Acts

chapter four, two chapters later, there's a further description here. It says all who

were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay

them at the apostles' feet and they would be distributed to each as any had need. So

again these gifts were free acts of obedience under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. He

was leading them in giving, leading them in generosity, leading them in loving and encouraging

them to trust him with all this. And they were giving these extravagant gifts so that

the apostles could distribute those in whatever way was necessary. Now if you're really bold

and you're really courageous and you want to read how serious God takes giving, go to

Acts chapter five. Anybody know what Acts five talks about? Two people named Ananias

and Sapphira who were not going to end well when it comes to their giving. And the whole

of Acts chapter five reminds us that God takes giving very seriously. But I want you to see

something here in Acts chapter five. When Peter confronted Ananias and Sapphira, because

what was happening was they said they were going to sell their property and they were

going to give it all to God and they didn't give it all to God and they lied. Peter said

why did you lie to the Holy Spirit and to others? But there's a line in here that I

want you to see. Peter said while it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after

it was sold, was it not under your control? Peter said look, this is something you've

chosen to do and lie about it. You had the freedom to act in obedience to the Lord or

not in obedience to the Lord, but it's not going to end well for you because you decided

to lie to the Holy Spirit and to others. Now I'll just say you have to be courageous to

read Acts chapter five. It doesn't end well and it tells us that God takes giving very

seriously and that we ought to listen to him well and obey him when he leads us. You say

well how do I navigate all that? Here's a simple way, simple formula. Just obey God

and leave the rest to him. Somebody say those three words with me. Just obey God. Say it

with me. Just obey God. How do you do anything else he leads you to do? Just obey God and

leave the rest up to him. He leads you to witness to somebody that you're a little bit

afraid to witness to. Just obey God and leave the rest up to him. He's leading you to prayer

for somebody else because you don't know what's going on in their life and you feel a burden

for them. How do you respond to that? That pressure? Just obey God and leave the rest

up to him. It's true of every aspect of the Christian life. If he's alive, if he's real,

if the Holy Spirit is inside of us we can trust him by just obeying God and leaving

the rest up to him. So these gifts in Acts 2 and Acts 4 were free acts of obedience.

They were listening to the Lord. They were following his leadership and incredible things

began to happen. Generosity takes place and it's powerful. I just say sometimes generosity

is not always a financial gift. It's not always a sacrificial gift. Sometimes it's extremely

generous to give yourself to something that needs to take place but you're doing it a

sacrifice to yourself. I'm going to tell you about two acts of obedience that happened

to me more than 25 years ago now. But these two acts of obedience are two acts that I

think demonstrate the generosity of God and how he orchestrates all this. More than 25

years ago I was a pastor and my wife and I were called to come to another church and

as we were called to go to that church, the church let us know their financial condition

and it was disastrous. It was bad. In fact when we asked them for the salary, it took

them a long time for them to come up with a salary and the salary was much less than

what I was making at my previous church. By then we figured out how to have kids and we

had almost six kids by then. When you figure out how to have a lot of kids then you also

need to figure out how to make enough income to feed those kids, right? But the offer that

they gave me was very low and I talked to them a little bit about that because I really

generally felt God was leading us to take that role. So we took the role and we accepted

that salary and they told us, you know, when we become debt free, when we remove all this

big debt then we'll adjust the salary, we'll be more generous with that and I said that's

fine, we'll trust the Lord with that. So over the next few years we trusted the Lord with

that. It wasn't easy, it wasn't something that just happened like that. I was actually

had a couple of side streams of income. Back then we just called them part time jobs but

they're side streams now, right? It's a better way to say it. I did everything I needed to

do in order to provide for my family during that time. One day I got a phone call from

somebody I didn't know. I'd never met them before. They didn't know our situation, they

didn't know anything about our church. And this person says, I'm going to deliver an

envelope to you and I need you just to receive it. And I was curious of course, couldn't

wait to get that envelope, couldn't wait to open it up, had no idea what it was. And

when I got that envelope and opened it up, it was two full years of salary that that

church had been paying me. Two full years of salary. I didn't meet that person until

later, a couple of years, about a year down the road I met that person and thanked them

and told them a little bit of the story. And this person said, listen, I just want you

to know I had more joy in giving you that than you can possibly imagine. And I said

back to this person, oh, you can't imagine how much joy I had in receiving that. And

in that story, two acts of obedience, obeying what God tells you to do and trusting that

God will provide through the obedience of maybe somebody else who's just doing what

he told them to do. You say, well, how do you organize all that? And the answer is you

don't. The God who speaks the existence into existence, the whole universe into existence,

the God who knows how molecular structure works, who knows how to put all the stars

in the universe, that God can so coordinate, so control, he can so organize things that

he meets you need, but you just need to be obedient to him. Whether it's an act of service

or an act of giving, just do it and trust God with the rest. That was happening in this

New Testament church. And all kinds of people were giving up all kinds of property in order

to demonstrate that their trust in God was secure and that God was able to meet those

amazing needs and joy surrounds that kind of generosity. If you jump over to second

Corinthians, there's a great passage there in chapter nine, verses six to seven, where

Paul now is writing to the church at Corinth. And he said this, he said, now, this I say,

he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion.

And then he says, for God loves a cheerful giver. That's what he wants you to experience,

by the way. God doesn't need your money, but he wants you to be involved in how he provides

for needs all around and generosity helps move you into that place of watching him provide

and the joy that comes with it. Now, if you keep reading Acts chapter two, you're going

to find that generosity expands ministry. It's really obvious. The last part of this

verse or passage says, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were

being saved. All these things, the spiritual health I'm talking about, this corporate worship,

the connecting with others, this being able to rehearse what the words of Jesus really

were about, praying for one another, having community together. All these things, along

with generosity, allowed the ministry to thrive and to reach out to others. And then by the

time you get to Acts chapter six, a large number of widows who needed attention, who

needed daily food. I mean, you're pretty desperate in a culture when you need the daily serving

of food and the church was providing that, then that was all happening as that generosity

was unfolding. So the church followed that pattern, met needs around them. And in verse

seven of Acts chapter six, it said, the word of God kept on spreading and the number of

disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests,

that is the Jewish priests were becoming obedient to the faith. Generosity expands ministries,

really amazing. Now, before you came into the, you may have received a card and if you

didn't, you can certainly get one on the way out, but it looks something like this right

here. You have that? If you have that, I want you to look at it with me for a moment. Now,

many of you have already maybe read what's on the other side of that. If you don't have

it, you can get one on the way out, but I'm going to talk about that for just a few moments

because what I want you to see is how the generosity of God working through this church

over the last 20 or more years has increased the way ministry happens to countless thousands

and 10,000s of lives. I'm going to read it on the backside of this. Over the past generation,

you've led the way. I'm saying you, Cross City Church, we said this in our earlier service,

we've said it north, we're saying it everywhere. You have led the way in these ways. You retired

the church debt. Through your generosity, we retired over $6 million of debt in 2007

and we remain debt free until this day. Folks, we just completed a $25 million renovation

project debt free and I think you ought to celebrate a little bit about that. I do. I

celebrate that. Generosity helps make that happen. We helped launch Kids Beach Club.

Kids Beach Club and their ministry and public schools has distributed 75,000 Bibles presented

to the gospel, 116,310 times, led 10,000 kids to Christ and 155,000 kids listen to the gospel

weekly through KBC TV and you helped launch Kids Beach Club. Amen. Amen. I don't know

if you're familiar with Six Stones but Six Stones was started in 2009. It served over

59,000 people in food, in regular food, led 4800 people to Jesus in our community. We've

rebuilt almost a thousand homes with Six Stones. I just could go on and on about that ministry

but do you realize it was launched in this room with a group of people like yourself

and if you were in that room that day and you stood up and said, yes, we'll be generous

for the cause of our community to make a difference for the cause of Christ and it's still making

a difference. Amen to you for that. Give the Lord a hand for that as well. What's wrong

with clapping? We launched and invested Mid-City Women's Center. 38,784 babies have been saved.

The gospel shared 46,000 times, 3,266 people have made professions of faith in 40 years

of this church supporting that. One more time, give a hand to the Lord. Wow, what a powerful

thing. And as I already shared, you gave more than 14 million, I guess I need to say more

zeros to that, 14 million to this renovation here of our buildings. We watched the Lord

provide for us in just unpredictable ways. We sold a piece of property across the street.

We bought for $1 million. We sold it for $9.5 million and God provided for us to prepare

for the next generation and He's done so well. Part of what I want to share with you today,

the announcement I want to share with you today, has to do with generosity. Our North

campus that we launched five years ago has been working for five years. They've been

in five different locations, by the way, five different locations. Pandemic shut down the

school they were in and they went to a hotel, then they went to a health club, then they

went back to a school and then finally to another school. Five different times they've

moved in five years and I celebrated five years with them out there this morning at

10 o'clock service and it's a great thing to watch those folks out there in the north

part of Tarrant County doing everything they can to get the gospel out to folks there.

But an act of generosity about a year ago, a year and a half ago now, gave them $2 million

to look for land. So we've been looking. One day, well, the campus pastor and I were

in my car I think. We were on the piece of property. We actually drove onto the piece

of property that we're praying about and ultimately the owner didn't want to sell that piece of

property but we were staying there and we knew we had $2 million that had been given.

We knew that it was going to take a little bit more than that but we also knew that that's

the piece that we really were praying about. And while we were seated there, I said let's

make a phone call. We made a phone call to a friend of both of ours, a member of our

church, and I said we're on a piece of property that we hope will someday be the piece that

we build on but whether it's this property or anything else, you've asked if you could

be kept up to speed on where we're at. This is where we're at. And as I said, ultimately

we didn't get that piece of property and that gentleman said, okay, thanks for letting me

know and I'll be in prayer about it. Well, just last week he called us and he said, I

want you to pick up a package. And actually our staff member Kent Wells said, I'm going

to be late to a staff meeting because I need to pick up a package and I don't like people

to be late to staff meetings and he knows that. So he said, trust me John, you're going

to want me to be late to this meeting. I said, okay. He goes to the meeting and he comes

back with a $3 million check for the North property. And that's my announcement I have

to make today, the generosity of someone that says, I want this to happen. Now all I'm doing

is talking to you about how God works in ways of generosity, how he moves in one heart or

more than one heart to bring about expanded ministry. And that's what's taking place.

If you think generosity doesn't bless people, then you're not really listening. You're not

really looking around at all the different ways generosity over the years has blessed

people. But let me just say, it's not just about generosity. Every generous act, every

time we get, every time we obey the Lord and doing what he's told us to do, the bigger

picture is we reflect the heart and the love of a generous God who gave his own son for

us. I read this last week and I want to read it to you, something I found on a website

called gotquestions.org. I was just doing a little research on generosity and I think

it was a great paragraph. God's generosity is everywhere around us. God created a planet

called earth that is perfectly made to sustain us and provide for our needs and pleasures.

He supplied us with color, light, sound, and the ability to taste and enjoy and hear and

appreciate and touch and be satisfied above all. God demonstrated his generosity when

he offered his son as a sacrifice to alone die for our sins. In the face of such generosity,

we can only say thanks be to God for this indescribable gift. The gift of Jesus to sinful

mankind was the ultimate act of generosity and all we do as we act in obedience to God

in areas of generosity is reflect that love of God. He's our provider but he also is

the one that loves us and sacrificed his own son for us. I want you to think about this

when you give or when you listen to the Lord lead you to do something generous, whether

it's help someone that lives next door to you, whether it's write a check for some ministry

you're aware of, whatever it is. And again, this is not an appeal to you to do any one

thing but for you to rather think about generosity as reflecting the character of God in your

daily life. God wants us to glorify him and that's what reflecting his character really

is is glorifying God, honoring him and his generosity in the way we live. So I'm going

to conclude today by asking you a series of questions. Are you trusting God with your

life? Are you trusting him with your direction, with your purpose? Some of you in this room

need to be asked, are you trusting him for your salvation? An incredible gift Jesus died

on the cross to give you of eternal life and forgiveness of sin. Are you trusting him with

your finances, with your future, with your joy? I can't remember one act that God has

led me to do in the way of generosity that kept me from having joy I otherwise would

have pursued with that money. No, I gave it as he led and got greater joy than that thing,

whatever that is, could have brought me. Trust God with your life. Trust God with your eternity.

Trust him with your giving. If I can trust God for all time and all eternity, I can trust

him with a few dollars in my bank account. I can trust him to lead me in a way that will

ultimately honor him. That's what I'm asking you to do. That's what the New Testament church

did. Learn the practice of generosity. And then why does God move in your life in ways

that you didn't anticipate and blesses people in a way you didn't know was possible? In

just a moment I'm going to close us in prayer and there's a couple of invitations I want

to give you today. First of all, always, always I want to ask you if you want to talk about

making a decision for Christ, I steer you towards these two decision stations at the

exits of our door. We'll have people behind those decision stations waiting to talk to

you about relationship with Christ. What does it mean to trust Christ for your salvation,

to be forgiven of sin? What does that mean? We can have that conversation. Secondly, I

invite you to our guest reception because there I would love to meet you. If you're

new here, I would love to meet you, talk to you. I have a book I'd love to give you. I'd

love to answer any questions that you may have. Next, I want to urge you, I want to

invite you to invite others to come to what's happening next week. As you leave today, you'll

see this Healthy Home Conference brochure. We'll be answering the question, what was

I created to be? In other words, we'll be talking about identity all day long through

our services and our special breakouts and our connection classes. Identity is a really,

really big deal today. There's even a politics identity thing that's happening today. There

is gender identity, there is sexual identity, all these things. But let's get back to the

original question, what did God create me to be? And we're going to answer that question

throughout the day. This will show you a program of what's happening. Now, if you really want

to get some really deep answers to those questions and how culture is asking them, we're going

to have a Q&A and a panel on the stage at our two o'clock session. As you'll see the

schedule, you'll see we're coming back after lunch for the two o'clock session with some

great leaders in the kingdom that will be helping answer the questions and many questions

that are happening in our culture today. Let me also say to you that how we share these

truths will be loving and kind and yet as clear as scripture, which is what gives us

the understanding of identity that we should have. So let's stand together for a closing

word of prayer and I invite you to all these things. Father, in Jesus' name, so, so very

grateful today that you have called us together to worship. Father, I pray today that as we

look at the pages of scripture, the practice of the New Testament church, as we listen

to the still small voice of your leadership, Lord, I pray that we might be bold enough

to be generous people, trusting you with all we have. Thank you, Father, for how you provide

for us. Lord, we trust you today. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Have

a wonderful Lord's Day.