Encounter - Encountering God Through Generosity

Over the last few weeks, we've been talking about encountering God, in which we've done some of that.

This morning, and I hope that we continue to do that as the sermon goes on, we have been encountering God through Scripture.

That was one of our sermons.

In relationships through worship talked about encountering God through prayer, and today we're going to talk about encountering God through generosity.

And generosity this week is someone who is generous, someone who gives of their time, their talent and their treasure above what is standard or normally expected.

So we're going to start out here just by talking for a minute about where did generosity come from?

And this is one of those answers.

That is the great school answer.

You can go ahead and call it out loud, it's fine.

What's the answer?

Jesus, that's right, god right.

He is the one who created generosity.

He showed us generosity from the very moment that he made the earth.

God comes on the scene and he makes the earth and the light and this beautiful land that we live in, and then he sticks us in a beautiful garden and then he gives us the best gift ever, the most generous gift you could ever give, and that's Himself walking in the garden.

What a generous God he could have decided to do it however he wanted, but he was so generous.

And then he goes through all of that and then we see later on in the Bible where he gives salvation to the captives in Exodus, he gives them the promised land in Joshua, and then he changes the devastation in Job's life and restores it all the way up to the New Testament.

He gives us Jesus the greatest of all gifts, right, the most generous thing that he could give us.

And then Jesus then feeds the multitudes and then the Holy Spirit's left with us and all the spiritual gifts.

And then he gives us life and freedom and understanding and power, and he gives us His word and he gives us access to His throne, gives us all of these great things, everything that's good he gives, and so on and so on.

And we could be here until next year if we continue talking about all of the things God has been generous in.

So God is always and has always been, is and has always been generous.

And again, a minute ago I was talking about how he gave us Himself with Adam and Eve.

But even though Adam and Eve didn't do the right thing and they sinned against God, god was still massively generous to them.

You got to think about this.

This is a God of the universe who can just wipe everything out and say, okay, that was a mess up, it's not over.

But no, he, he clothed them and he still talked to them.

God didn't just drop them and have nothing to do with it or with them.

And then even with the Israelites, you know, god had just told them on here's your 10 commandments, and one of them is don't have any other gods before me.

And then Moses goes up on the mountaintop and then, while he's up there talking to God, they make an engraved image of a calf, right, and God could have just been like I'm done with it and then just scratched them off the earth.

But he didn't.

Yes, there was a punishment to be had and they sent them out into the wilderness.

But what did he do?

He fed them with manna from heaven every day, and he was still taking care of them.

So we learned generosity from the God of the universe, who has been so great, so magnificent, so wonderful and gracious to us.

He could have just let sinners die, but he cared for them.

He could have just turned His back on us, but then he sent us His most prized possession of all, his Son.

So then, for us, what do we need to be generous with?

Well, it's everything our time, our talent and our treasure.

And we see a good picture of what the early church looked like with the scriptures that we've been walking through with this sermon series, and that's Acts, chapter two, in verses 42 through 47.

Today we're going to go through just 45 through 47.

So says and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, and, day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved.

Let's pray, father, I just thank you again for the opportunity to stand here and read your word.

Who am I?

I'm no one, but God.

You are so good to us and I just pray, lord, god, that you would just help us to hear your words this morning.

We thank you, lord, god, for how we saw the early church live and be generous, and, god, we just pray that, as we hear this morning through your word, that you would help us to live that way In Jesus' name.

So there's three things that stuck out to me in these scriptures, and I just want to share them with you really quick, and they were.

The first one is that they were selling their possessions and belongings and giving help to those in need.

Notice, though, that we didn't see that they sold all of their possessions and belongings.

This is not some legalistic thing.

Okay, this is not a thing that you have to do.

There's no obligation to do these things.

We see that again in Acts, chapter five, verse four.

When they were doing these things, annanaius was selling off some of his property, and Peter says the property was yours to sell or not to sell, as you wish, and after selling it, the money was also yours to give away.

So he was telling them that there was no obligation to do this, but why did they do it?

So we'll talk about that in a moment.

So they met together in their homes and received everything with glad and fulfilled hearts, or generous hearts.

One thing that I saw there and it's not a big thing, but I did want to pull it out is that sometimes we need to receive with a generous heart.

I know sometimes our pride gets in the way when someone tries to give to us and we don't need, but yet we need to receive what someone is trying to do for us Right and again.

The last one is praise arose from them, and it was so incredible to see how praise arose from them because of the relationship that they had with God and that God had gifted them this church family, and they had begun to see what that looked like and it was so good.

So the generosity came from within.

As God was moving in their life, they've started to become more and more like God.

So the sermon, of course, is about generosity, but it's not just about money, but living a generous life with every breath God has given us.

We're going to talk about time, talent and treasures.

So the first one is time.

God has given us time to steward much like money.

We don't know how much we're going to have, we have no clue what we're going to end up with, but there's only so much and we must steward it properly.

And it's important for us to spend time starting with God, the God of the universe, the one that is so generous to us.

We need to get to know him Right, and this is something that pricked my heart and I was kind of thinking about it and an idea that I had was tithing just as I do my finances, which we'll talk about later, but tithing my time as well.

To God, I need to do that.

I need to give some of the first fruits of my time to him to get to know him more, to figure out what is on his heart, to figure out what he likes, what he loves, what he wants to do, what he wants me to do, and I'll only know that if I spend time with him.

Another way that we need to steward our time properly is with our family.

We only have 24 hours a day and in our family we're going to sleep 8.

If we're lucky, you know, some of us might get 9,.

Some of us normally live off of 5, right, but we have this time to sleep and then we have what's time in the day?

Well, we got to go earn a living 8 to 10 hours a day.

We're working right With travel time and everything.

So what's that?

Leave us 3 to 4 hours in the afternoon with our kids, right, and we got to steward that time properly.

If you are blessed here today with a massive blessing to be able to homeschool your kids.

You get to put all of the time into your children to show them what it looks like to live for God and you don't have to worry about the outside world pouring their doctrines into your child.

But for a lot of us, we have to send our children off to go get taught right, and so when we get home in the afternoons we've only got 3 to 4 hours.

What are we doing with that time?

Are we sitting there flipping through the channel changer because we want our time off?

Are we sending them to their rooms so that they just go learn life on their own or talking things with their buddies and on the internet?

Or are we stewarding our time with our family because we've only got so much with them?

We've only got so much time to show them what it looks like for mom and dad to live a godly life.

We've got to show them what it looks like when we're having a frustrated day, how we deal with that in the Scripture, how we ask for forgiveness, how we repent and make things right.

And then we must steward our time to help others.

It is so important for us to build relationship with others because it helps us grow.

It helps iron, sharpen iron to be there for one another and the early church was doing that as well Such a magnificent way.

My shameless plug here today for the church, with your time, is that there are so many things that can be done here at church, inside this church and outside this church, and this is your opportunity to share what God has given you.

And we're going to talk about talents here now, but that's another way.

With talents that we can give to the church, our time and our talent can be given here, because only God has uniquely made you a specific way.

So let's talk about talents.

Each of us, each and every one of us, has been created by God in a specific manner, for a specific reason.

You are a magnificent creation from the Father, god in heaven.

You hear that today.

Sometimes we think that we're not good enough, but then you're talking to God's creation.

God made it.

It's like talking to the Son and saying you're not doing your job, you're terrible, but the Son does its job.

It is so good, it warms us, it brings life, and God has specifically made you for this place in the body.

We're all one part of the body of Christ and if you think about what it would be like if I ask you right now to stand up, you were one leg missing.

No wheelchair allowed, no crutches.

I need you to walk to the parking lot All right, get there.

And then, when you get there, I need you to go out into the city and go help somebody move.

It's kind of hard, isn't it?

And that's exactly what this body of Christ is like when your talent's not being used, because we are all a part of this body.

You might be the toe that helps us stay on balance as we're walking.

You might be the hand that helps grab somebody before they fall.

You might be part in the brain that helps us to administrate and make the body move, but you have a talent that's specifically made for the body of Christ to move, and that's why we tell you each week that it's really important for you to find a home, that you should be in a church home and we pray, whether it be here or somewhere else, that you need to be active in your body of Christ.

That's why we don't call you a member here, because you're a partner here.

You're a part of this body of Christ and we want to see you use your God-given talents for His glory.

And there's places again all over this church that need you, that need what God has gifted you with, here in this body, and it might be back here with the children's ministry.

It might be over here with the coffee bar.

It might be making copies in the front office, but each and every one of them help Trinity Community Church move forward in its mission to reach the lost.

Oh, but it's just babysitting in the back.

No, it's not.

These kids are learning about Jesus on a level that they can understand.

They're not going to be able to sit in here for 45 minutes.

No, they're learning back there in a way that they understand the gospel.

And then they get to go home and parents, it's our responsibility to start feeding off of what did you learn this week?

Or let's look at what that means for our life this week.

But see all of us working together.

Help to grow the family in that, and that is where you can be good stewards of the talent and the time that God has given us.

So then we get down to the treasure God has given us so much, and the Bible says a lot about being generous and how it, how he relates to money and how we should relate to money.

Why does the Bible talk so much about it?

It's because I believe that if we don't get control of it, it gets control of us.

We need to put it in the place where it belongs.

Now, of course, we all need to have money to survive and provide and enjoy.

Why not?

And here's the thing for so many years I had heard the saying the love of money or that money is the root of all evil.

It wasn't until later that I heard it said the love of money is the root of all evil.

Money is not evil.

Money doesn't hurt anybody.

Money itself can be very helpful in so many ways.

You love the money and you put that center and self to center, because that's really what that turns into.

When you love money, you put yourself to center what I want and what I'm gonna get right now.

You're.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

But money itself can be used for amazing things, much like the internet.

It can be very evil if you use it that way, but the internet can be a really good thing.

I can call somebody right now in China and talk to them.

That can be a wonderful thing.

I can share the gospel with them Within seconds across the world.

So money is not evil, but what we think about it is what's important.

That's the concern.

Now in America, we deal with materialism and individualism.

Every one of us deal with it at some point in our life.

Now, america is thousands of years past the scripture that we just read, but what's really incredible is that we're still dealing with it.

Right, we still do all these things.

So God allowed it to pass through thousands of years of historical things, because it's still the truth.

Each and every one of us are dealing with it.

Until Jesus comes back, we're going to be dealing with these things.

So what is materialism?

Materialism is a tendency to consider possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values, and individualism is a habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant or self-centered.

Each of these puts self at center, each one of them.

And to combat the fleshly tendencies about self, the Bible gives tons of advice about money and possessions.

So much so that even a secular financial publication called Forbes Magazine put something out a few years ago that blew my mind that they would even print it.

Now I'm not saying everybody at Forbes believes it.

But listen to what they printed.

It says that the Bible is the ultimate financial guide.

Or.

Their question is is the Bible the ultimate financial guide?

And their answer was yes.

The article has this man named Gringan Grandich I have that name.

He is the author of Confessions of a Wall Street WizKid and he says the writer of the Bible anticipated the problems that we would have with money and possessions.

He says that there are over 2,000 references.

He says our whole culture now is built on the premise that we have to have more money and more stuff to feel happy and secure.

Listen to this.

He says public storage is the poster child for what's wrong with America.

We have too much stuff because we've bought into the myth fabricated by Wall Street and Madison Avenue that more stuff equals more happiness.

He says that's the opposite of the truth and the opposite of what the Bible says.

He goes on to say that his number one, his number one financial rule is God owns everything.

He says you bought the house, but you didn't have the money to buy it.

God gave it to you.

So this brought me to a study that I'd done many years back.

One of the things that I love the most is realizing that everything out there is God's.

Everything that I have, it's all God's.

Now, my flesh likes to go different, but like my spirit, that's one of the favorite things is knowing that everything belongs to God.

And we think about how God placed us on the earth.

He gave us Adam and Eve and then he put Adam and Eve in charge of the earth, but he didn't give it to them.

He didn't give it to them.

He says you're gonna name them and all those things, but it's not yours.

And then it reminds me of Joseph and Pharaoh, where Joseph is put in charge and Joseph didn't own all of it.

It wasn't his at all.

He was just put in charge of it, but Joseph got to reap the spoils of it.

Joseph got to come out of prison.

He got to be put up into a nice house or a castle, whatever they lived in.

He got to wear the nice clothes and eat all the great food.

He even had his own servants and stuff.

Right, he was in charge, but yet it wasn't his.

When Pharaoh said I want such and such, he stepped out of the way.

It's yours, I will do as you please with it.

Pharaoh would give him commands.

I want you to do this with my stuff, absolutely.

I do it right now because it was his.

And this is the same principle.

We were once slaves to sin, condemned to a life of punishment, just like Joseph, but God, being generous, paid his greatest price ever paid.

He allowed Jesus to come down and give us new life and he's placed us into a new place.

And now we're stewards of these gifts and treasures that God has given to us.

But why does God give?

God gives so that we can give.

He gives us blessings so that our blessings can be blessings.

They're not just for us.

Is salvation just for us?

Are we supposed to get the knowledge of salvation and hide it under a bush?

Oh no, we're supposed to let everyone know about it.

You got my pun there.

Huh, they're all blessings from God, everything.

And then I started looking into how often the world gets this picture of how generosity can change your life.

Now we know that the Bible says that this is the way you're supposed to live, generously.

But then I found this paper from the Berkeley University called the Science of Generosity, where they did a study and they concluded that people that are generous with their time, their talent, their treasure live happier, healthier, longer lives than those who are not generous.

Stingy people die early.

That's what it said In this paper.

They also conclude that we are genetically wired for generosity.

Now, of course, they turn all this toward the evolutionary reasons, but that's just their ignorance of the truth.

We know it's because God created us to be generous, because God created us in His image.

We have been created in the image of God and that is how we're supposed to live.

We allow ourselves to be about self.

We're no longer in His image.

Bible teaches us that everything that is a gift or entrusted with wealth and talents and these lives.

So, then, giving, therefore, is a way of acknowledging God's sovereignty over all of it, saying that we know that he's in control.

When we give, when he says to, when we give, when he doesn't say to, when we give, we're acknowledging that, god, you're in control.

I know that, no matter how much I give, you're going to take care of me.

I know that at times, I might not be in a comfortable spot to give, but you're going to take care of me.

I trust you, and that's what it's doing.

The Bible says that giving is also an act of worship Offering what we have to God and to others expresses our gratitude, our faith and our love toward God.

It's a tangible expression of our spiritual commitment to God and His commandments.

So when we give, one of the good principles that we should have comes in 2nd Corinthians, 9 and 7.

And says each one of us must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion or regret, for God loves a cheerful giver.

So it's not if you give, it's when you give Like it's just expected that when we become more like God we're going to give.

So when you give, give like this.

Now, it doesn't matter about the size.

Some of us are going to be able to give great out of the abundance that God's given us, and some of us are going to be giving sacrificially.

But no matter how we give, listen to what it says in Mark, chapter 12, verses 1-44.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

Jesus is sitting there and he sat down opposite of the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box.

Many rich people put in large sums and a poor widow came and put two small copper coins which made a penny, and he called his disciples to them and said truly, I say to you that this poor widow has given more than all of those contributing in this offering box, for they are contributing out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.

It was a sacrificial gift.

And why does she do it?

Because she knew God was in control.

She knew that it's all right.

I'll give these two pennies because God's going to give me five pennies tomorrow.

It's going to be fine.

I'm going to have food tomorrow.

It's going to be just fine.

And then another great story that we think about is when Jesus comes and there's 5,000 men non-including women and children, probably 10,000 people here in front of him and he's going to feed them and he's looking around.

Nobody's got food.

And so then a young person comes up and he's got a couple fish and some bread, and God multiplies it to everyone.

Now, did the little kid go home without a basket full of something?

12 baskets were taken up.

Now it doesn't say but like I know that the little boy is not going to go home without his fish and bread, like I can just imagine him going home and like carrying his bags.

And what did you get all of this?

I've got to tell you the story about Jesus.

Look what he did.

I gave him the couple fish and bread.

He gave me like 12 baskets.

I mean like that could totally reasonably happen.

He's not going to go home empty handed, right, god gives.

The truth is that you can't out give God.

Mark talked about it this morning in Luke 6, 38.

Giving it will be given to you.

Good measure Press down, shaking together, running over will be poured into your life.

I did that earlier to lap for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

So years ago this scripture was talked about.

It was taught on in this pastor that I had.

He brought in a basket and he had fake money and he started reading this giving it will be given to you.

And he put some money in and he's shaking together, he shakes and put some more money in and pressed down and he starts pressing it down and putting some more money in.

And this took like 10 minutes or so because it took him so long to put the money in and to press it down and shake together and put the money in and press down and shake together until it was running over into his lap.

That's the picture.

We serve a generous God, when you give, he will give to you.

Press down, shaking together, running over.

He'll give you a full bag of chips.

You think about the bag of chips.

It's full.

When you buy it.

You go home and there's like this much at the bottom.

He opens the back of him, keeps filling it up till it's running over.

Right, but he will, he will.

So what are some ways that we can give?

One of the ways is to show God that you know he's in charge of all of your finances, is to give a tenth of everything you've got, and I'm here today to tell you.

It's not in a way to be proud or anything like that.

I just want to start my testimony here just a bit.

I have given 10% to this church of every dime that I've ever had since I showed up at Trinity.

Okay, you need to know that because I trust God.

I remember when I met my wife, we were dating for about a month and I asked her to marry me and then, like a week later, I gave her all my finances.

I didn't want to deal with it, no more.

But I said I got one rule and she's a new Christian, so this is all new to her.

Yeah, it was smart.

So she's a new Christian, so she didn't know what to do.

So I said listen, I have one rule, of course, to pay the bills, that wasn't the question.

But you have to take 10% of everything that comes into this account and give back to the church.

You have to.

It's a rule.

But what if we don't have it?

We don't have the money for the KUB bill.

We have the 10%, but we don't have that money.

Right, it's the first fruits, and I got to tell you today, as I've said here, I just told you I've given 10% to Trinity.

I think you could probably audit that and find it to be true, but I've given 10% to Trinity.

All of this time, and to this day, I have not been hungry.

I have lived at times, very, very rough time, where we had to eat ramen noodles for you know, a couple of nights in a roll.

Ramen, ramen, dante, danny, however you say it, but I had to.

You know, have some rough times, not to say that we haven't, but I have never been starving, my heat's not been off, my lights have been paid, so much so that I've got a testimony of one time we were short on $200.

Didn't know how we were going to pay, and we talked about it the night before and my wife's then the next morning she's trying to figure out how we're going to pay this bill.

We're $200 short.

And she calls me and she goes did you just put $200 in the account?

And I said no.

She goes.

Well, you know, my check register says that we are $3.52 in the account, but yet the bank says we're $203.52.

It makes no sense.

So of course, this is back before our phones when we can reconcile real easily.

You had to wait for the papers to come in, but we didn't do that.

We're too lazy.

So she starts looking back through the paper and she can't find where this $200 came from.

We still, to this day, do not know how the $200 was in there extra for God knows how long, but yet there was $200 extra dollars to pay that bill.

How does that happen?

I don't have a clue.

All I know is that God says when you give, I will give back to you.

Press down, shaking together and running over until it pours out into your lap.

That's what he promises and you can't out give him.

Try it.

So another type of sacrificial giving is and this is above ties and offering, and it is like giving to missions or to the poor.

This one also kind of falls in with almsgiving, which involves giving to those in great need.

This type of giving reflects the heart of God, because he cares deeply for the marginalized and less fortunate.

When we give to the needy with with our attention or our finances, bible says we're caring for the least of these, and that comes from Matthew, chapter 5, 37.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Then the righteous will answer him saying Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and cloth you?

And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

The king will answer them Truly.

I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

We're helping people.

We're helping people in need.

We might not always know their story, we might not always know what's going on.

You might think first off that they're going to take your money and go buy booze, and they might.

But that's none of your business.

If God says to do it, shut up and do it.

It's that simple.

How many times I've met someone homeless at the store and you know, and I don't like I try to run the other way.

I try to get away from them because I know their headed beeline for me.

And then I get in the truck and my heart's pounding because God's telling me get out, get out of your selfish state and go talk to them right now.

And I don't.

I leave.

How many times I've missed the opportunity to give unto Jesus, to give unto God.

But oh, great joy that it feels when you walk up and somebody says they're hungry and you go well, let's go get some food, and you don't buy them junk, you go get them some good food.

It is incredible.

And he says truly I say to you, as you do it to the least of these, you've done it to me.

And this, really one way to show the illustration of the transforming of power, of being generous, is with Zacchaeus in Luke 19, 1 through 10, and he's a Wesley taxic collector who gave half of his possessions to the poor and repaid four times anybody that he had cheated.

It changed his life to be generous.

It showed that, like when God showed him how gracious he was, then he's going to give graciously.

God has set me free from all that he has.

He's set my feet on a solid rock.

He's giving me salvation when I deserve nothing at all.

He provides for me and gives me a place to sleep.

Tonight I've got a warm bed, I've got food on my table.

Why wouldn't I want to give, because he gave so much to me.

But there's a couple things that we need to remember when we're giving.

There is some principles.

It's really important.

It's not if we give, but when.

When you give Matthew 6, 3.

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Nobody needs to know what you're doing.

If you tell everybody, then that's your gift.

No more shaking together, running over until it's poured out into your lap.

You got it, you got the recognition.

I hope you enjoy it.

We don't let the left hand know what the right hand's doing right.

So when you give, keep it to yourself.

And then we also got to remember that offering a portion of our income to God is important, but we can't forget justice, mercy and faithfulness.

Matthew 23, 23.

What do you scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, because you tithe your mint and your deal your cumin and, but you've neglected the way to your matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

So don't forget that we still uphold, but it's right.

And then we're like oh, but we give, it's still not all about that, it's really.

It still comes from the heart.

So just because you give 10% doesn't mean that you're giving 10 percent from the heart.

That's why the scripture says earlier when you give, you don't do it out of compulsion, you give it from a glad and generous heart.

So we are generous because the love of God is in us, and we see in John 3, 17.

But if anyone has the world's good and sees a brother in need yes, is.

Yet he closes his heart against him.

How does God's love abide in him?

Scripture's just saying that when we have the love of God in us, we're going to give.

So in conclusion, the Bible does not provide an exact amount or percentage that must be given.

We see that God loves a chill for giver, cheerful giver who gives willingly and sacrificially, without seeking recognition.

The attitude of the heart is essential when it becomes, when it comes to being generous with our time, talent and money.

Generosity is an expression of love and gratitude to God, and it's not about meeting a specific requirement but honoring God with the gifts that he's given us.

So how do we encounter God in this way?

Because we tap directly into the heart of God in generosity.

We can't we get closer and closer to him just because we are getting to know who he is when we act as he does.

And then, like I, I've got a couple of things.

One I like to be a puppet.

I don't be personally as a Christian.

I want to be a puppet.

I don't want to say anything and I don't want to do anything without God pulling the strings.

But then I got a picture this week about being a glove.

A glove is useless.

It lays on the ground if you don't have a hand in it.

I want God to be the hand inside of me, moving me and taking me and grabbing and pulling out of my pocket wherever he pleases.

Let us be the glove and let God be the hand, because this dip and demonstrates selfless generosity, deepening our relationship with God.

See, generosity is very important to our spiritual growth and maturity.

It cultivates our heart of gratitude and commitment with God, for which he is already so richly provided for us already not for what he's gonna do it, but already.

Every single one of us is so richly blessed.

It helps us to recognize the value of eternal treasure over material possessions and incorporates giving in our daily life by setting aside a portion of our income, volunteering, seeking opportunities to bless others.

It's a powerful way to honor God.

So this week, what I want us to do is look at our life, and I want to encourage you today to look at how you spend your time.

Are we spending our time setting aside some for God to get to know him a little bit more?

Are we spending time helping others?

Are we spending time with our families to be sure that we're giving them everything that they need for a life that follows Jesus?

Are we setting aside our talent that God is entrusted with us?

Are we giving it time to be used?

Are we allowing it to be used by God in inside the church and outside the church?

Are we using it to glorify and honor his name, and will we use it as a blessing to help others grow?

And then, how will we spend our money that God lets us steward?

It's not ours, it's his.

It's not ours, it's his, so will we allow God to use it as he sees fit.

Will we allow him to use it within the church body?

Out in the world?

We will use it by being wise with it and Allowing God to do what he wants in our own life.

With the money.

Again, this doesn't mean all the funds gone.

Joseph got to enjoy the spoils.

I Am got a blessed life.

God has been so incredibly gracious to me and my wife.

My wife and I were born and lived in a very poor way, but God has blessed us so much and he blesses each and every one of us.

I know there's so many stories in the room of people who didn't have anything, but God blessed you.

What are we doing with that?

So, father, we just pray right now that you would move in our hearts, move in our lives, lord, god, and help us all to see that it all belongs to you and God, that we would do what you want to do with it, that we would spend it how you want us to spend it, god, and that we wouldn't make big decisions without seeking you first.

Father, help us to encounter you through generosity, lord.

In Jesus name, ma'am.

Amen.

Just one second.

I wanted to just say something about Derek and make it Sorry.

Do we want to dance?

God's blessed them so much.

They have lived a debt-free life, including their house, for the last several years and it's just a testimony of God's faithfulness and their Stewardship of the gifts that God has given them.

And I just wanted to say that and we're just really proud of you and Megan and your dedication to the Lord, especially in this area.

One thing I wanted to clear you had said earlier that we don't give to get.

Correct.

Can you just explain that a little bit?

We never give to get.

That is correct.

So when we're giving, we don't give.

We don't give to get, we just give because of the great Generosity that God's given to us.

So yes, I'm glad you brought that up because I missed it in my point.

You got to know that.

I know that a lot of times something like this comes out that we give so that we can keep getting.

But it's not about that.

You know, god does say to give and it will be given to you, press down, shaking together, running over.

So it's kind of him saying Outgive me, try, you know.

But again it's all back to the heart.

We're giving because God has given.

That's it, not so we can get more.

Thank you.

Okay, just to finish up, this morning I felt like the Lord spoke to me, that he wanted to be generous amongst us today, especially in the area of breakthrough.

Especially in the area of breakthrough.

That's the word that I felt, like the Lord spoke to me, and so I want to just take a minute and pray for that now, and I'm gonna ask that you would respond.

So there are many, maybe many, areas in your life that you need breakthrough.

Maybe it's in your physical well-being.

You need God to.

You're asking the Lord to help you With an illness that you've been dealing with and you need breakthrough in that area.

Maybe there's something in your emotion, in your soul, that you're struggling with right now.

The Lord is, is here and he's present and he wants to be generous towards you in the area of breakthrough In your soul.

Maybe some of you are having relational issues With your husband or wife, with your children, grandchildren, employer, employee a lot of different things.

God God wants to work and to manifest himself in the area of generosity through breakthrough.

Maybe it is finances.

Maybe you're struggling right now and it seems like every, no matter what you do, that that you can't seem to get ahead and you keep falling further and further behind.

God wants to give you breakthrough this morning.

I believe now we also understand that there are times when what the break, the breakthrough that we need, is grace To endure whatever it is that we're going through in this current state.

Right, sometimes, the grace, always but grace is his grace is enough for us.

Even when I'm weak, he's made strong in us.

So maybe it's just that you need a breakthrough of grace this morning.

Whatever it is, if you're here this morning and you recognize and you want to ask our generous father For some help in the area of breakthrough, would you just stand to your feet across the room here, and we just want to pray with you.

And I'm going to ask that those who are here that are around, the People that are standing, would you just gather around them and begin to pray and ask the Lord for that breakthrough.

And I'm also going to be praying for those that are on the internet.

We thank you for joining us for the service this morning.

We praying for you right now that the Lord would meet you at your point of need.

Father, we pray for breakthrough in every person's life.

In the mighty name of Jesus, we thank you that you are a generous God who takes care of us in so many ways.

Father, we pray for breakthrough in grace and in mercy for those who need that.

We pray for breakthrough in the area of finances, lord, that you would open up the windows of heaven and pour out Blessings upon people's lives, that they would be willing, if they've not been giving up to this point, give them the desire to give.

Lord God also pray for breakthrough in the area of Relationships and within families.

I ask, lord God, in Jesus name, that you would restore broken Relationships.

We pray for those who are struggling in their emotions and in their soul, lord God, with depression or anxiety, fear, whatever those things are.

Lord, we ask for breakthrough right now, in the name of Jesus, that you would move upon their hearts and minds.

We also pray, lord, for those who are dealing with physical elements, who find themselves Stabilitated or in very difficult places.

We pray, lord, god, that your manifest presence would meet them at their point of their need, even now, as we're praying, lord God, that they would sense your presence with them, touching them, healing them, restoring them to health.

In the name of Jesus and Lord, for anything else that we have not mentioned here, lord, you are the God who is more than enough, and we pray, lord, that you would intervene and move in special ways.

Special ways move upon your children today, lord, you're such a generous father, such a generous God, and we put our hope and confidence and trust in you To provide everything that's needed, and we give you glory for it.

In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray Amen.

Amen.