How to be Generous | Generous Like Jesus

Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast.

Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others.

We're glad you're here and we hope you enjoy this message.

Hi, guys.

Welcome to Sandals Church.

And I just want to start off with a question today.

If you had to define Jesus with one word, what word would that be?

I imagine that, man, if I just went around the room, if I could just interview every

person, there would just be so many words that would define Jesus.

But let me give you a word or a thought that I don't think comes to the forefront of our

minds when we think about Jesus.

And the word is generous.

If you think about John 316, generosity defines his life.

For God so loved the world that he gave.

Who?

Jesus.

Jesus is a gift.

And so if I'm going to worship someone whose life is defined by generosity, what must I

become?

As a Christian who follows Jesus, I must become a generous person.

Now, I want you to think ahead to the day when you die, right?

We can't control when we're born and we can't control when we leave.

All we can control is that dash in the middle.

And I'm wondering if at your funeral, when your family and your friends, when people who

speak about you, when you can't argue, I'm wondering if one of the words that they're

going to use to describe you is generous.

Now, I can't control when I die or how I die, but I'm hoping that when people talk about

me, I'm hoping my wife will say, Matt was generous.

I'm hoping my kids will say my dad was generous.

I'm hoping that people that interacted with me will not say, Matt was someone who was

always asking for something, but Matt was someone who was giving something, looking for an

opportunity to give.

You see, I learned early on in my Christian walk that if I was truly going to follow

Jesus, I had to have a life marked by generosity.

And so we're going to talk today about Jesus and you're going to be blown away through

this series.

You're like, how can you do a whole series on generosity?

Oh, wait, we're going to.

Because Jesus is the most generous human being to ever walk the face of the earth and he

wants to help change your heart and help you become a more generous person.

Hey, guys, thanks so much for joining us today.

If you want to be a part of the work in the ministry here at Sandals Church, you can go

today to donate.

SC, thanks again for watching and let's continue on in the message.

So we're going to start this series in Luke chapter Eleven, verses 37 through 39.

We're going to start this story.

And at the end of the message, we're going to finish this story.

But as Jesus was speaking in Luke Eleven, it says this.

One of the Pharisees invited him to his home for a meal.

Let's just stop there.

Let's pause here.

Before you invite Jesus into your heart, into your home or into your head, be careful,

because when he comes into your life, he wants to change your life.

And so he went and he took his place at the table.

Right?

There's a place for Jesus.

And his host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat.

Without first performing the hand washing ceremony required by Jewish custom.

Jesus didn't wash his hands.

It's kind of gross, right?

But he has a point.

And then the Lord said to him, you Pharisees, this is the guy who invited him over.

Think a priest or a pastor.

Super religious person in the Jewish religion.

He says, you Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and dish.

But inside, listen to this.

You are filthy.

Full of what?

According to Jesus, greed and wickedness.

If I'm going to be a generous person, I must be honest about the problem of greed.

How many of you have ever known or met a greedy person?

Raise your hands.

Look around.

I mean, we've met these people.

Some of us have been raised by these people.

Some of us have worked for these people.

Some of us are sitting next to these people.

Amen.

Don't look at them.

Don't look at them.

Here's what the Bible says about greedy people.

Such God denying people are never content with what they have or who they are.

Their greed drives them relentlessly.

Now, before you judge a greedy person, I just want to say this.

We need to have compassion upon them.

And why is that?

Because greed is oppressive.

It's oppressive.

It owns them.

It controls them.

They go to sleep at night thinking about what they don't have.

And they wake up in the morning thinking about what they don't have.

They are a slave to their desires.

Greed's oppressive.

Next.

Greed is blinding you.

Ever wonder how they don't get it?

How on earth do you not get this?

I'm a married man.

And so what that means is from time to time I watch television programs that I would not

watch if I was single, okay?

And one of those programs was the Johnny Depp Amber Heard trial.

Anybody watch that?

Oh, my gosh, I wish I didn't.

But I did.

You want to talk about a greed slug fest?

It was ugly and awful looking at people that will have more money than you and I ever

will.

Johnny Depp's lost more money than I've ever just.

He's just.

He's drowning.

Sleeping in money.

I don't know if you know, I saw in the trial, but he owns his house and every house around

him in his cul de sac in LA.

That's mean.

Where do we put all those homeless people?

Johnny Depp's house.

Amen.

That's all I'm saying.

I'm kidding.

Don't actually do that.

I don't want Johnny Depp to sue me anyways.

But, you know, Amber Heard was suing him for millions and millions of dollars.

And you remember what she said?

She said, I don't actually want this money.

I'm going to donate it to charity.

And then they pulled out the charity foundation where she donated the money and she had

pledged it, but she never gave it.

And she said this, she said, a pledge is just as good as a gift.

Now, don't laugh, because that's how some of you give.

Okay?

You know what I'm saying?

Don't laugh.

You're like, it's coming, Pastor.

It's coming.

But I want you to see, Greed is blinding one of the give the biggest pledges we've ever

had in our church.

A pledge was for millions of dollars.

Do you want to know what they gave?

Zero.

Zero, man.

And you say, how could a person do that?

It's not the person.

It's the greed in the person.

And greed blinds you.

Now, if you're a Christian or you're new to Christianity or you're considering, man, I

don't know if I want to be a Christian or not.

You need to know this.

Greed is a sin according to the Bible.

Now, here's the problem.

It's the most prevalent sin in the church, but it's the least talked about sin in the

church.

This is how bad sin is, according to the Apostle Paul.

He says, but among you, there must not even be a hint of greed.

Why?

Because these are improper for the Lord's people.

Here's my prayer for sandals Church.

We're never going to be defined as a perfect church, but I want us to be defined as a

generous church.

And if you're a Christian, your life should be marked by generosity.

Greed should be as disgusting to you as a Porta potty on a hot day.

Amen.

You ever done that?

I mean, you got to go.

You got to go.

You don't want to be there.

But that's what greed should be like for us.

We should smell greed, we should loathe greed, and we should never want it to be in our

life.

So Greed's terrible.

Greed's awful.

Greed's a sin.

So here's my question.

Are there some areas in your life where you're greedy?

See, if I'm going to become generous like Jesus, I got to admit what greed is.

And then I got to identify areas in my life where I might be greedy.

This is what Jesus says in Luke twelve.

This is a different teaching.

And then he said to them, watch out, watch out.

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

Whoa, wait a minute.

Back up there.

Greed is multifaceted.

It's not just about money.

Watch out for all kinds of greed.

Greed is so sticky, so evil, so dark, it can trip us up in multiple areas in our life.

Jesus says, life does not consist in abundance of possessions.

Watch out for all kinds of greed.

Now, I've been a pastor for 30 years.

I have had people confess things to me where I've wanted to laugh, I've wanted to cry,

I've wanted to run.

I mean, I've had people confess murder to me.

I've had to contact the police and involve the police in something someone in our church

had done.

But do you know, in 30 years as your pastor, in 30 years, no one has ever confessed greed.

Can you believe that?

What do you think the chances are in a church of 40,000 people that there isn't somebody

right now wrestling with this sin?

We've probably had a million people come through the doors of Santa's church since we

started.

What do you think the chances are that there wasn't one person one time?

And I've had people confess crazy things one time.

I remember a young man right in the lobby said, I haven't looked at porn in three days.

And he gave me a high five.

I was like, you just said that out loud.

I've had people confess crazy things, but nobody has ever confessed greed.

You know why that is?

Greed is sneaky.

Sneaky.

I'm not greedy.

You are.

They are.

So how might I be greedy?

Let's just run through a couple of things.

How about with my time, man?

One of the questions I get the most in the debrief is, do I have to go to church?

You know what you're saying?

This is my time.

And to your credit, the Lord has given you six days.

Do what you want for six days.

He says, but on the 7th day, give me his time.

Here's the one way you are identical to Jesus.

Here's the one way where there's absolutely nothing different about the life that you live

and the life that Jesus lived.

Jesus had 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

How about with my things?

Oh, my gosh.

Anybody got kids?

That's mine.

That's mine.

Stop touching it.

That's mine.

That's mine.

That's mine.

My brother and I used to fight over toys so much, my mom would mark all of his toys with

Green toenail polish, and all my toys were with red toenail polish because we fought over

whose was whose.

How about this?

My emotions.

Some of you have been so hurt by people, you'll never share an emotion again.

I'm going to show my current husband and blame him for what your last husband did.

How about your affection?

Some of us are so greedy with our affection.

Last month, I had the opportunity to go visit my 97 year old Grandmother, Grandma Flo.

I haven't seen her for various reasons because of COVID The last time I saw her, man, she

was 90.

Now she's 97.

And I just hugged her all day long, gave her little kisses, played with her hair, a little

purple hair.

This is so cute.

And I just rubbed her back.

You know what she said to me?

She said, it's so nice to be touched.

I said, grandma, I'm just treating you the way you treated me when I was little.

But some of us, man, we're so afraid to hug our kids, to hug our wife, to hug our husband,

to hug a friend, to say, man, I just love you.

We live in a world that's digitally connected but physically separated.

Some of us are greedy with our words.

Do you know how important it is to speak an encouraging word?

Man, I just love you.

I just appreciate you.

I'm just thankful for you.

And some of us, man, we just.

We're so afraid of saying the wrong thing.

It keeps us from ever saying the right thing.

And now let's get to what you're afraid I'm going to talk about.

Greedy with my money.

Listen to me, parents.

You know what word you will never have to teach your child to say?

Mine.

But if you're a Christian parent and you want to raise Christian kids, you've got to teach

them to say his.

Nobody ever told a two year old.

Repeat after me.

Say mine.

Now say it with passion.

Now say it with anger.

Mine.

No one's ever taught a child to say that.

But that's what a child says, and so we've got to teach them, no.

Everything is God's, and he has given this to us, and we need to learn to share it.

You ever watch three year olds share?

A potential murder is about ready to break out.

It's okay.

Let's not stab each other with a dinosaur.

Let's share the dinosaur.

So let me ask you a question.

I mean, as Christians, I would assume you take sin very seriously.

You want to love God.

You want to live a holy life.

So why is it that you give yourself permission when it comes to greed?

Here's what I think we do is, well, I'm not as greedy as that person, or I'm not like

them.

You know why I think it is?

I Think it's because we don't understand the consequences of greed.

That's why we lie.

Like, we know what adultery can do.

We know what murder can do.

We know what lying does.

We know what cheating does.

Right?

But we don't know what greed does.

You want to know what greed does?

Greed invites evil into my life.

The Bible is full of so many sad stories.

So many sad stories.

And one of the saddest stories in the Bible is in Genesis, chapter four.

It's a story of two brothers, two brothers who didn't learn from their parents mistake.

Some of you have never thought about what the original sin is.

God says you can have anything and everything on earth except this one thing.

And what drove Adam and Eve to sin?

Coveting.

It's greed.

It's taking that which is not yours.

And then they said, let's have kids, right?

Some of you did the same thing.

Let's change the world.

Let's make the world a better place.

Let's have children.

And then you look at your sin in the lives of little people.

In Genesis, chapter four, verses two through seven, it says, when they grew up, Abel

became a shepherd, and Cain cultivated the ground.

So Cain is the oldest, Abel is the youngest.

And when it was time for harvest, Cain presented some of the crops as a gift to the Lord.

Genesis, chapter four is an offering to God.

God, you've given this to us.

You've protected us, and we're going to give a portion back to you.

You see, everybody who acknowledges God wants to return the blessings of God back to him.

And I want you to know that there's no mandate to do this.

They just felt like they should.

Abel also brought a gift.

And what was his gift?

Listen to this.

From the best portions of the firstborn lambs of his flock.

And the Lord accepted Abel and his gift.

But he did not accept Cain and his gift.

I wonder why that was.

The Bible makes a point that Abel gave his very best.

And it says nothing about the offering that Cain gave.

It always amazes me.

Christians, I love you very much.

I love you.

I appreciate you.

Your money is your money.

Your stuff is your stuff.

But let me ask you this question.

If the couch ain't good enough for your house, why is it good enough for God's house?

I just want to donate.

I was feeling generous.

I can't have this for my buns.

But the Lord's buns, he can sit right on this.

Listen to me.

Goodwill is great, but that's not always God's will.

And so many Christians fail when they read to the Bible, don't donate the lamb with one

eye.

That's not the one God wants.

And some of you, you fail to understand the teachings of scriptures, the scriptures that

seem so minute and so tedious.

What God is saying, don't give me your crap.

I just love the Lord so much.

I'm going to give this lamb that's going to die tomorrow.

But listen to Cain's response.

This made Cain very angry and he looked dejected.

So in Genesis chapter three, Eve looks at the fruit.

In Genesis chapter four, Cain looks at himself and the Lord says, why are you so angry?

Why do you look so dejected?

He says, you will be accepted if what?

If you do what is right.

But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out.

God says sin is crouching at the door.

Listen to this.

And it is eager to what?

Control you.

And some of you.

You're going to spend your whole life asking God to take away your desire for sin.

And God is going to spend your whole life telling you your job is to control it.

Wouldn't that be great if God just took away our desires for sin?

What God thinks would be great is if you served him in spite of those desires.

He said, but you must subdue it and be its master.

Wow.

And does Cain listen?

No.

He lures his brother into the field.

And murder occurs in Genesis, chapter four.

Man, that's the power of greed.

Why do you think most wars start?

You see, professors in colleges love to blame God.

Let me give you the real culprit.

It's greed.

It's greed.

We don't have guns to protect us from God.

We have guns to protect us from each other.

Greed is the culprit behind all of these conflicts, all of these problems.

A fight for resources.

Instead of sharing, we hoard and we take and we kill and we murder.

And this happens in Genesis chapter four, because if you don't identify greed that is

crouching at your door, it will destroy you and worse.

Listen to this.

Greed can create conflict with those I love.

Isn't it interesting that Genesis four starts out as a problem between Cain and who?

God.

But it results in a problem between Cain and Abel.

Proverbs 527.

Greed brings grief to the whole family, man, that's a blessing.

If you're poor.

Amen.

You ain't going to fight over nothing, because all you're going to get to Bill.

Amen.

I love poor funerals.

Nobody's fighting.

Everybody's trying to get out quickly because they know somebody's going to write a check.

But when you have resources and there's something left over, your parents have worked a

hard enough life to leave something for you.

Oh, watch the siblings turn on each other.

Watch it.

It's amazing.

So greed invites evil into my life.

It separates me.

And by the way, it just doesn't separate brothers.

It separates husbands and wives.

You want to know the secret to stop fighting about money?

If you're married, when it's your money, you're going to fight about it.

When it's God's money, you're going to learn to share it.

My wife and I, we've had a lot of fights.

We're blessed when it comes to we are like Christian kung fu marriage artists.

But, you know, we've never once in our marriage had a fight about money.

And you want to know why that is?

Because when we got married, we decided it was all God's.

And here's the beauty of being poor.

It's a whole lot easier to give God nothing than it is something.

That's why I love college students, man.

We're like, you need to serve God.

They're like, oh, take it all, Lord.

And Lord's like, there's nothing in there.

Nothing but a little dust.

I love that college students are take it all, even my debt, Lord.

You can have it all.

God's like, wow, you're faithful.

But listen, I want you to understand this.

Not only does greed invite evil into your life, not only does it divide you from the

People you love, you know what it does?

It destroys my soul, man.

It destroys my soul.

And some of you listen to me, that are wealthy.

You've given greed permission in your life because you pay taxes.

Look, I get it.

I don't like paying taxes either.

But you know, when you're paying a lot of taxes.

You know what that means?

You've experienced a lot of blessings.

You've experienced a lot of blessings, and you have given yourself permission to be greedy

because you think something's unjust, something's unfair.

You know who else felt that way?

Cain.

He felt like he was getting unfair criticism, and ultimately, it led him to take his

brother Abel's life.

Two Peter, 214.

This is how the message.

Translation.

Translation says this.

Their specialty is greed.

Peter is talking about ungodly people, and it says they are experts at it.

Listen to this.

I love this.

Dead souls.

You want to die inside?

Become greedy.

Become greedy.

So what do we do as Christians?

What do we do?

We have to work on becoming generous through giving.

This is so important.

So important.

So let's go back to the dinner.

Remember the dinner with Jesus where he offends everybody at the table?

Thank you so much for having me over.

And he's like, you want to talk about my dirty hands?

Let's talk about your soul.

Let's talk about what's happening inside of you.

Can you imagine?

You're like, I don't want Jesus over here anymore.

So Jesus is criticized for not washing his hands.

Jews were meticulous at cleaning things.

Extraordinarily clean people.

And then Jesus comes at them.

Listen to what he says, you fools.

You fools.

Didn't God make the inside as well as the outside?

So clean the inside.

How, Jesus?

How do I clean the inside?

Listen to what Jesus says.

By giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.

Isn't that incredible?

Think about that.

Giving is powerful.

These aren't my words.

This is Jesus.

According to Jesus, giving releases me from the power of greed.

Now, think about that.

Some of you as Christians, you say you love God with all of your heart, but you don't love

him with anything in your wallet.

This is a huge problem in the church.

It's a huge problem.

As your pastor, can I just be honest with you?

I wish I never had to talk about giving, ever.

But it's a rampant problem in our culture today.

And the antidote to greed is giving.

If you knew what greed does to your life, you know what you'd ask me to do?

You would say, Pastor, when we start church, can we start with the offering?

If you knew how devastating greed was to your life, to your marriage, to your kids, to

your heart, and to your soul.

And here's the thing.

So many Christians, well, I just don't think that the church should talk about money.

Do you know that Jesus Christ talks about money more than any other issue in the

scriptures, if you took Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you numbered every single verse

and you laid them out every 6th verse, Jesus talks about money.

Do you know why that is?

Because it's a problem for us.

Now, sometimes it's a problem for pastors who live fancy lifestyles and lifestyles from

the rich and famous.

That is the unusual form.

Usually the problem with greed is not in the pulpit, but it's in the seats.

It's in the seats.

I know far more starving pastors than I do wealthy pastors.

Next.

Giving cleanses me from the stain of greed.

From the stain of greed.

I thank God I'm married.

Single guys, you will, too, one day.

Like, when single guys get a stain, it's just either with you for the rest of your life,

or you just throw it out, right?

You just get a new shirt.

And I don't know what it is, man, but whenever I eat, you remember, like our grandparents,

they would do the thing in the neck.

And I don't know why we got away from that.

But literally, my first bite, I just want to just offer up an offering and throw the oil

right on my chest.

And especially if you wear white.

Amen.

Anybody wear white?

Just roll in the mud before you go out to dinner.

But I get these stains, and I'm always asking my wife, how do I get this out?

How do I get this out?

ANd what I really mean by that is, Tammy, wash this.

That's what I mean by that.

The Lord has given me gifts.

He's given you gifts, and you have the gift of stain removal.

So my wife, the other day, she takes us over to our washer, and she says, oh, this is how

we do it.

And that's when you have to play dumb, guys.

You just go, oh, okay.

And you start pressing buttons everywhere.

And then she just gets frustrated and does it for you.

It's awesome.

But here's the thing, is, giving removes the stain of greed.

And somebody say, well, Pastor, were you talking about works?

No, I'm talking about Jesus.

Jesus said, listen this.

When you give the filth that's on the inside, listen to these words, will be cleansed,

cleansed.

And this is why so many of us, and I learned this early on, I need to give regular, and I

need to give sacrificially.

I needed to do that because I thought I was a generous person.

And what I've learned over the years is I can be occasionally generous, but my default is

greed.

I don't wake up in the morning.

How can I serve thine wife today?

What could I do to die to thyself?

How can I bless these children that you have anointed me with?

Lord, no.

I wake up in the morning thinking about me.

Me.

And what giving allows me to do is to tame that monster that crouches at my front door

every single day when I wake.

And what did God say?

Its desire is for you.

So take it away, Lord.

Take it away.

No, that's not what he said.

You must master it.

You must master it.

You must fight it.

You must deal with it, because it's not going away.

And here's the reason.

Because it's not outside.

It's inside.

It's inside.

Next.

And this is huge giving.

Here's why you need to learn to give.

Giving fights greed.

Giving also pours the blessings of God over my life.

There's so many of you say, Pastor, this is so easy for you because your kids are out of

the house.

They've been through college.

You and Tammy have been blessed.

Let me tell you why we're blessed.

Because 27 years ago, we made a commitment to be generous to God.

To be generous to God.

And here's the thing.

I've not lived a perfect life by any means, but I have lived a blessed life.

And if you're 20 years old, you're 25 years old, and you're looking at me, and you say,

okay, what do I want my life to look like when I'm Pastor Matt's age?

And there's the problem.

See what Greed says?

Greed says, look right here.

You know what God says?

Let's look to the future.

Let's look to the future.

Greed says, I don't have enough.

God says, you'll always have enough.

You always have enough.

You know what Jesus says?

He says, consider the lilies.

You're like, I'm talking about.

Said, no, no.

Jesus says, consider the lilies of the field.

God takes care of them.

And they're dressed more beautiful than Solomon was.

Consider the crows.

An ugly, nasty bird, the crows.

Unless, of course, you love them.

I apologize for that.

But every time I think the crows just always say, I want to eat you, they're just nasty

birds.

But he says, consider the ravens, the crows, they don't plant, but the Lord blesses them

with food every day.

You see, greed, the Book of Proverbs says, causes fighting, but trusting the Lord leads to

prosperity.

So in this series, we're on a journey, and some of you are trusting what you can see.

And I get it.

Some of you are going, Pastor, Matt, I was talking to a young adult in our church, and

they literally said this to me.

Pastor Matt, you don't understand how the cost of groceries has affected me.

And you know what I said?

You're right.

You're right.

Tammy and I are a place in our life where groceries aren't the issue.

We're blessed.

And some of you, inflation is crushing you.

And the temptation is, well, I don't have to trust God because of inflation.

I don't have to trust God because of the cost of groceries.

I don't have to trust God because of the economy.

Let me tell you something.

Your whole life, whether you're blessed or broke, you got to trust God.

You got to trust God.

And here's the thing.

Here's my prayer for you, especially our young people who struggle so much when you're a

child.

Listen to me.

Your parents pay.

When you become an adult, you pay.

And this is the shift in our church.

We got a lot of babies in this church that are living off the generosity of the adults in

this church.

And what I'm saying is, I want us all to become adults, and I want us all to step in this.

And I get it's hard.

I get it's difficult.

This is why church, we got to start talking about greed.

We got to start talking about this sin.

We got to start holding each other accountable because this sin is destroying our church.

And here's the thing.

If we raise up a generation of greedy people, there will be no church for the next

generation.

Here's what you need to know.

I know many of you are brand new to church.

Let me tell you how this works.

Every single year, the church starts with a budget of zero, and we raise the money all

year long.

All year long.

And the way we do that is through the generosity of the people of this church.

Of this church.

We don't have, like, a wealthy grandpa, unless you do.

I want to meet you.

I need to understand why he's not given.

But here's the thing.

God doesn't work through millionaires and billionaires for his church because the worst

thing that could ever happen to this church is we have too much money.

Because you know what happens when you have too much money?

You got too little faith.

And so this is going to be a challenge for us as a church.

As we end the year, inflation is up, the economy is coming down, and the worries are

everywhere.

I see it.

What I'm saying is we got to trust God in the middle of this process, because if we want

to be more generous.

I got to at least ask the question, God, where am I greedy?

And so I just want to end with a prayer for you.

I don't know your life, I don't know your situation, but God does.

God sees you.

And just like God had a conversation with Cain, and I'm not calling you Cain, but just

like God had a conversation with Cain about his offering, I want God to have a

conversation with you about your offering and understand this.

A Christian life that is not marked by generosity has not been marked by Jesus.

There's just no other way around it.

And we need to be Christians that are marked by a life of generosity.

So we're going to pray, and I'm just going to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you wherever

you are and say, Lord, is there an area of my life where I've been greedy?

Because some of us today need to go to apologize to our spouse.

I've been greedy with my words.

We need to apologize to our kids.

I've been greedy with my affection, and some of us today need to apologize to God and

said, I've been greedy with my money.

And let's just start there with the word my.

I need to confess, Lord, I view this as mine, and that's the problem.

Help me, Lord, to see this as yours.

So let's pray.

Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we just ask that we would become more generous

people, more generous to our family, more generous to our friends, Lord, more generous to

everyone around us, God, and specifically right now.

I pray that you would help us to become more generous to you and to this church.

Lord, is there an area where I've been greedy in my offerings?

Is there an area where I'm intentionally holding back something that you are asking me to

give?

Lord, speak to me through this series.

Help me to not check out.

Help me to not run away, because this may be the most important series of my life.

Lord, let us be a people whose life is marked by the word generous.

Change our hearts.

Help us to deal with greed, and help us, Lord Jesus, to become like you, the most generous

human being to ever walk the face of the earth.

We love you, Jesus.

We want to be like you.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.