Guest Speaker - Clem Ferris - Am I Generous?

Hey, it's great to see you.

It's great to be at Trinity it's, uh, June already.

Wow.

And, uh, we're flying through, it was here a year ago and, uh, we had a great time with the youth.

How many youth are here?

Let's hear it.

You're gonna have to do better than that by the time next week comes.

All right.

So they in an unprecedented move, they invited me back for this year.

So you asked for it, buckle up.

It's gonna be a great week.

It's good to be with you.

Um, you know, I just got back from a month in the UK and it's exciting to get back out and see God doing things, uh, in nation of Wales and in England and Scotland.

And so things are, things are ramping up.

I feel like we're in a post COVID vacuum where my thoughts and prayer and meeting with guys is that, you know, we had no idea what God was up to when we thought we were being locked down and shut down.

I think God was ripening the harvest.

That's the phrase that kept coming to me.

I, I get that outta revelation where it talks about the harvest of the earth.

It's ripe.

God's been ripening the harvest.

We gotta get our Sickles out and get ready and thrust in the Sickles.

I think it's the best time I'm excited for your summer connect with people.

That's part of the harvest.

Getting people to connect is so important.

So I'm excited for we.

A lot of churches kind of shut down their small groups for the summer.

You're like, no way we're gonna ramp'em up so way to go, Trinity, you're gonna have a great summer.

Uh, this is, I mean, we're here like six months ago, seven months ago, you just finished your renovations and now it's like, ramp it up, baby.

You can't wait to get in the forest tonight.

We're gonna have fun.

You need to come tonight.

This is great.

Um, in a month from now, maybe five weeks from now, we'll be back here doing a prophetic conference.

Some of you went last year.

We had one.

Um, and so there's four.

There's five of us to meet every Thursday on zoom.

One of'em, Steve fatto who, you know, uh, Michael Cotton, uh, Chuck Porter, rich go.

And myself.

We've been meeting on zoom ever since the pandemic hit every Thursday and we just can't stop.

We're addicted to each other.

we?

Because, and God has just given us insights and wisdom.

So we're gonna have another conference.

I think the title is an extraordinary God for extraordinary times.

How's that sound?

How many ready?

For some extraordinary insight to what God is up to.

We are too.

We don't know, but we're gonna be seeking God.

It's gonna be a really important time.

It's gonna be right here.

Thank you for hosting at Trinity and, uh, July 8th and ninth, it's gonna be Friday and Saturday.

So it's gonna be a good time.

So my announcements are now over here, we go buckle up.

And so I was given an assignment, you know, I'm on the oversight team, but I get, I get told what to do sometimes.

So the pastor calls and said, I need you to do this, but I really feel this is a, a, a timely message for all of us.

Uh, we're in, we are in extraordinary times.

The Bible actually calls'em perilous times and there's challenges like we've never had before.

And who knows what's next?

I don't know.

You don't know.

And God in his grace doesn't give us a glimpse of everything, but he gives us insight and wisdom on how to navigate the days ahead.

And I think in this time of recession and there's, there's all kinds of pressure on us.

I think we need to go back to the God that we just sang about all morning, the God of all grace.

Amen.

And I really believe we need the grace to trust him more.

I love that old song, but man, that last phrase rang in my spirit.

Oh, for the grace to trust you more.

You want that grace, we're gonna get it from the word you ready?

We're gonna go to John chapter 12, verse one through eight.

John 12 · chapter mention

Excuse me.

Title is, uh, am I generous now we're gonna talk about generosity, but the question is, am I generous?

And I didn't say, are you generous?

Notice?

It's like, am I generous?

I mean, I need this.

We all have to make this personal this morning and think about it.

Today's the day of Pentecost we celebrate Pentecost.

Right?

Think about first of all, the, the grand scheme of God's generous heart.

God's so love the world that he gave his only begotten son.

That's generous.

If you only had one son and we're willing to give him up and sacrifice him for the sins of the world, that's generosity, there's no greater generous act, right?

So God is a giver and God always gives his best.

But then see, Jesus, he's also a giver.

So when Jesus ascended, he said, don't worry, I'm sending the holy spirit.

I'm gonna send another.

I'm gonna send the comforter.

So Jesus ascended into heaven.

And on the day of Pentecost, he gave his best.

His best was the holy spirit.

I know that's.

That was a pretty good gift.

He said, wait for the promise of the father, the gift of the father.

So Jesus gave his best.

So the holy spirit comes on the day of Pentecost, which we're celebrating today.

Woohoo, holy spirit.

And he gave his best.

Come on.

Somebody.

He gave his best.

He gave gifts on men.

He gave gifts.

He's full of gifts.

See you can't outgive the Godhead.

They're just givers, givers, givers, givers, that what's, they mean they are generous to you and me.

The holy spirit called by Jesus, the comforter or the helper helper in the Greek is the Perclose.

The Perclose made up of two words.

Perclose or Paracas means to call alongside the holy spirit is the one that we call alongside.

When we have a need, we call him alongside of us.

So every time you wanna move in generosity, the holy Spirit's there.

He can't help it.

See if you move in generosity, the holy Spirit's there he comes alongside you.

He's the one that gives you the grace to trust in God.

So we're gonna look at this amazing story of, um, this idea to question our own hearts this morning.

This is a matter of the heart.

It's not a matter of money.

We're it's not a matter of, uh, dollars and cents or anything.

It's a matter of the heart.

And something comes out in this story.

That's I think very revealing John chapter 12 versus one through eight, six days before Passover Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

John 12 · chapter mention

So they gave a dinner for him there.

Martha served Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.

Don't forget.

This is John 12 and John 11.

This is when Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead.

He's got a back from life guy sitting at the table.

I'm sure there was a little conversation going on at that table.

Anyway, verse three, Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure NA and anointed.

The feet of Jesus wiped his feet with her hair.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume, but Judas is scar it.

One of his disciples who was about to betray him said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 Dary?

And given to the poor?

He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because watch he was a thief and having charge of the money bag he used to help himself to whatever was put in it.

Jesus said, leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.

That's an amazing story.

Because in this story, it's the revealing of hearts.

This story reveals the hearts of two different types of people.

You have a heart of generosity in this story and you have a heart of selfishness.

Why do you think Mary gave such an extravagant gift?

I'll explain why it was so extravagant in a minute.

It was an extravagant gift that she gave to Jesus.

And on the other side, why was Judah so bothered by that?

Why was he like, how dare you should have sold that and given it to the poor.

Now that sounded like a nice religious thing to say and believe me, it was totally religious.

Well, we look at these two hearts, a heart of generosity in Mary, actually a heart of selfishness in Judas.

So let's look first at this idea of generosity.

Am I generous?

I don't know.

Am I, well, first of all, let's talk about the enemy of generosity.

What's the enemy of generosity.

It's selfishness let's get right to the room.

Selfishness is the enemy of generosity.

You can't be generous and selfish at the same time.

They're Oxy.

Moron just had these beautiful family up here.

That was beautiful.

And those three precious little kids.

And I'll just bet you dad and mom, you've never sat down and taught them this important phrase as a child must learn.

All children must learn this phrase, but it's amazing how nobody teaches it to'em and it's the simple word mine.

Yeah.

Is that yours?

Mine.

It's mine now.

That's that's your brothers.

Give it back.

No, it's mine.

Mine work on that word.

Okay.

Work on that.

uh, so that they get that.

Any parents say, you know, I had a trouble teaching my kids, mine.

I just, I, they still to this day, they just wanna give and give and give.

I just can't get that possessiveness.

No, it's in us.

It's we're born mine.

We're born selfish.

It's it's who we are.

Right?

You don't have to teach them now eventually through parenting, good admonition pastor through parenting and, and take the class.

Cuz obviously Tyler and Amy have got that all down.

There's no, you've got that down.

Um, no it's yours.

Dear.

No eye yield.

No, you can.

You can have someone by French fries.

Um, anyway, we're born selfish, but we learn.

We learn how to become less selfish.

You outgrow it.

And so when we come to giving, we have this funny feeling that, you know, when we start earning money, we start getting things.

We think it's mine.

Don't we it's mine.

You know, God only uses that word prolifically one time.

Well, pretty much, you know, everything is mine says, God.

But he says specifically about the tithe, which is the 10th of everything he gives you.

He says, that's mine.

Now that is mine.

God doesn't do it for selfish purposes.

He does it to help break selfishness in us so that we become generous.

You have to outgrow that idea that it's all mine.

Um, we have two choices when it comes to what God gives us.

You can either bring it to God.

You can bring a tithes to God.

And the tithe is just 10% the 10th.

That's all.

You can bring a tithe to God as Malachi instructs, Malachi three eight, bring your ties and offerings into the storehouse that there be food in my house.

Bring it.

Or you can keep it.

That's the nice way of saying it.

But keeping the tithe is not just keeping it mine.

Malachi says you're stealing it.

Uhoh he says would a man Rob God.

Nah, I never robed God do you tithe?

No, just not there yet.

Well then if you're not tithing, you're stealing.

Why?

Because that belongs to God.

The tide belongs to God.

You go, uh, oh, uh, oh, is that really what the, the word, the word of God says?

Yeah, it really does.

See there's an enemy.

Now think about this.

There's an enemy to the plan of God and the purposes of God.

And if, think about warfare and today's Pentecost Sunday.

So I always look at it this way.

There are two, the two most explosive doctrines in the church is T and T they're explosive.

It's like dynamite.

You wanna blow something up, preach on these two topics and today's Pentecost Sunday.

So one of them is tongues.

You wanna just cause a little kerfuffle in the church, teach on tongues.

It'll the he of enemy.

He hates it.

And the other is tithing tongues and tithing T and T guaranteed.

You'll have an explosion.

because the enemy hates those two, like nothing else.

And I'll tell you why.

If you think of in a military mindset, if you're in a war and you're trying to stop your enemy from advancing on his campaign, there's two things you wanna do.

Number one, you jam the communication.

That's tongues is the perfect communication between God and man it's it's heaven and earth communicating with no frequency interference.

It's it's it's our spirit communicating with God's spirit.

It's just like powerful day of Pentecost.

See, that was the greatest.

When the holy spirit came, he came loaded with gifts.

And the first gift he gave was what?

Communication come on.

Somebody spiritual language.

What a gift that is in our broken world, where language is, every language is being challenged.

Every definition is being challenged.

That doesn't really mean that like a friend in Greensboro who just renamed his church definition, church, think about that's weird.

No, it's not actually because you know what everything's trying to be redefined.

So communication is very important.

And the holy spirit came on the day of Pentecost and said, the first thing we're gonna do is give you communication spirit language.

So you can talk to God and reverse the curse of Babylon where God confused it, confounded the languages then brought'em all back together.

Okay.

That's a mini teaching right there.

But the other thing is, if you're in a war, you've gotta jam the communication devices and what cut off the supply, cut off the supplies.

You'll handicap the army.

We're living in a world where what's being challenged right now.

Supply chain.

You see how the enemy is even at work in the natural, but in the spiritual, the enemy's been at work always to try to cut off the supplies for the army of God, Jerry Daley, who was a spiritual father to me.

And he founded our network of churches.

Some of you know him, Jerry said this a long time ago and I never forgot it.

He said, God gives a vision to a church based on everybody tithing.

Now here's the problem.

And you can ask any pastor, do you have enough money for your vision?

No, but we're believe in God.

Our, our vision's bigger than our budget.

You know, that's the mantra, but you know why?

Cause only five to 8% of believers tithe.

That's staggering folks.

Not here.

Of course I checked your records before I came.

just kidding.

But that's a small percentage, small per and you know what, that's why churches are they can't, they're always pushing.

And you almost feel like all they talk about is money.

Nobody don't only talk about money.

They talk about vision because you know what?

God gives a vision to a church based on everybody tithing.

And then there's, once you go beyond tithing, there's this overflow of offerings and giving to reach your community.

So I think you're ahead of the curve church.

I think you are.

I, I know, I know for a fact you are, but here's the thing.

There's different levels of giving.

So we have this whole idea of tithing 10%, which is the first it's all just the first 10th.

I used to be, by the way, a reverse tither don't look at me like that.

I'm gonna explain it.

And some of you're going, oh boy, that was me too.

Well, I started out tithing.

Thank God, 40 years ago, God's been faithful.

But there, I got to a point where, um, and especially was happening when we were planting our church and things were so tight all the time.

We were just believing.

And um, what I used to do is weekly.

Do your bills and everything.

I would, I would pay my bills and then it's kinda like this.

I had a little contest going with God said, okay, God, I'm gonna be a good steward.

I'm gonna pay my bills.

I'm gonna take care of my family, pay my bills.

And when I get done, if there's enough left, I'll tithe like a good tither, but God, you know, understand.

I've gotta give all these other bills first place.

And then if there's anything left, it's kind of a contest.

Let's see if you can leave me something, you'll get your 10%.

I did that for a while.

And then one night it's just like the holy spirit arrested me.

And I got the revelation.

Like it's not just 10%.

It's the first 10%.

The tide is the first 10th.

Not any 10th.

See, I can, I kind of made it the last 10th.

It was like a little contest.

Like, well it says, prove me.

Well, I was proven the wrong way.

And I changed.

And I began to realize, I have to give God the first 10th.

It says, give him the first fruits of your increase, whatever your increase is, give him the first fruits that changed everything for us.

It changed my perspective.

It changed my heart.

And see, when you realize that once you get into the and break that enemy off of your own, I call it the like a spirit of poverty that comes upon you.

You break that with tithing.

Then you get to enter a new level of giving, which is the second, second thing about understanding generosity.

There's the enemy of generosity, but there is now the extravagance of generosity.

There is an extravagance that God wants to move us into.

And let's explain extravagance in just a minute in the idea of extravagance.

There's this idea.

There's different levels of giving.

First of all, there's tithing 10%.

Once you do that, according to Malachi, once you give the tithes to God, it says it opens the windows of heaven.

Then you can give beyond the tithe.

And that was a big, that was a big journey for my wife and I, even when we were church planting, it was like, we were just like going from offering to offering, but begin to move back into a new level of giving that goes beyond just getting by.

And so you have tithing, you have offerings and then you have extravagant offerings.

Those are rare.

They're not all the time.

They're special occasions.

I have a friend that calls,'em not just extravagant offerings.

He calls'em painful offerings.

Yeah.

Where you give painfully to the Lord, but see God rewards that God watches over that God opens the windows of heaven.

God does things.

And so I'm gonna go back to the story for a minute.

And I wanna talk about this extravagant gift that Mary gave.

It was extravagant.

Now, by the way, an extravagant gift is a gift that is more than what you would give.

That's all I know that's painful.

Extravagance in your definition of extravagance is anything that's more than I have look at his car.

So extravagant, you should sell that car and give it to the poor.

why don't you sell your car?

I won't sell my car, but he should sell his car.

Right?

just, what does that reveal?

It reveals the Judas heart.

You should sell that.

Why did they sell that perfume and give it to the poor?

Well, geez, you're selfish.

You're a thief.

You're revealing your heart of selfishness.

You didn't that wasn't a heart of generosity cuz Jesus revealed his heart.

What?

He didn't care about the poor.

He was actually a thief.

Here's this lady that gives us extravagant offer.

Why was it extravagant?

It was sold.

He said it could have been sold for 300 Dera.

That's 300 days.

Wages.

Think about what you earn in a year.

You roughly work about 300 outta 365 days in a year.

So one day's wage in today's economy.

I don't know what it is, but multiply one.

Day's wage times 300.

That's a lot of money.

That's your one year of earning.

How many could afford to do that?

This is what she did.

And that's why Judas flipped a, he flipped a switch going ha I can't believe she spent that much money.

That's extravagant.

She shut a sold and giving it to the poor.

Really?

Let me ask you a question.

How much money do you think would impress God?

How much could you give?

When finally go angels, you would not believe the one offering we got at Trinity this week is unbelievable.

I am so impressed.

You know, God paves his streets with gold.

It's no big deal for him.

You can go on and on about the extravagance of God and how he looks at values.

Like we, you know, what's impressive given you God, do you wanna impress God, let me give you a scripture.

It's not up here.

But second Corinthians eight, five, just listen to this.

But they gave themselves first to the Lord.

What's that mean?

You give your heart.

They gave themselves the best offering you can give to God is you, all of you all y'all, as you say, every part of you, they gave themselves to the Lord first.

And then by the will of God, to us, Paul said, because impressive giving to God is giving yourself your heart because Matthew 6 21 says where your heart is.

That's where your treasures.

You wanna reveal where your true treasures, where your heart is.

And so these are revealed.

This is, this is a revelation.

This is, this is what was being revealed in this story between Mary who had really just a generous heart and Judas who was selfish, Mary's gift was extravagant.

And do you know why?

I think that was because of chapter 11.

Not she didn't file chapter 11.

It's John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

Okay.

well, sure she could.

She, she, anyway, she wasn't in arrears.

Um, because of what happened in John 11, because Jesus has had raised her brother from the dead.

She was like, I'll just give you everything.

Lord, I'll give you everything because of what you did for my brother.

But brothers and sisters have not.

We all been raised from the dead.

Yes.

Have you been raised from the dead?

If you're a believer this morning you've been raised from the dead.

If you're not a believer this morning, you can be raised from the dead because you're born in sin and trespasses, Ephesians two, we're all born dead in sin and trespassed.

That's the glory of the gospel.

The good news of the gospel is, you know what?

You can come out of your dead life and into a new life with Jesus Christ raised from the dead.

If you're born again, if you're here as a believer, you've been raised from the dead, that's a gift from God.

And what would you give back to him?

there's nothing too great to give back to him.

What's the best you can give him.

You, you give him yourself.

Judas was bothered by this.

He was so bothered because when you begin to point out someone else's extravagance, it's just a cover up for selfishness.

Don't look around the room.

So I see somebody starting to turn your heads.

No look, looks, I straightforward this morning.

I straightforward.

It's like, but we've all done.

It.

I've done it.

It's like, that's like extravagant.

But extravagant remembers just someone that has more than you have you drive by a certain house.

Well, that house is extravagant and someone drives by your house and go, your house is extravagant.

It's like, we just play that game all day long.

So we're not gonna attack other people's extravagance, which is defined by somebody else.

We go back to the heart that was revealed.

What was God revealing?

The heart?

Judah said this.

Not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself.

He stole from the offering box.

Could you imagine stealing from the offering box now we're in a whole new world.

Now we don't really because of COVID and everything.

We're just online givers and all that.

But you know, it's still possible to steal from the offering box.

You're going, why I need a new technique?

What's the new technique.

No, I'm trying to help you out here.

It's like, because remember if we were back in the old days, if you're giving, you know, passing the offering plate and you give your offering, you know, bring your tide, you give it.

But if you have a tithe sitting at home or in your checking account or wherever your account is, and you don't bring it and you withhold it, it's like stealing, keeping.

It is like stealing and Judas used to not really keep it.

He used to help himself.

Remember a guy going, yeah, one time he brought was a new believer.

He's learning and he's teaching.

It came time for the offering and the offering came by and he he'd grabbed the offering plate.

And he took out a$20 bill and he put it in and he started fishing out ones and fives.

He goes, what are you doing?

He goes, I'm making change.

okay.

Well, he was getting there.

He finally lost my, I think it's okay if you make change, but at least you're giving.

So, um, this whole idea of extravagant giving is something that God has to work in our hearts and extravagant is not millions and billions.

It could be the little pennies that that widow gave.

See David gave extravagantly be when he built the temple, they figured it out.

It could be actually somewhere around 21 billion in today's money is what David spent on the temple that's extravagant.

But so was the widows mite.

According to Jesus, she gave all that she had, that was extravagant 10 or 15 years ago.

I was in Vietnam.

It was my first of several trips in Vietnam.

It was the early two thousands.

So there's a bunch of stuff going on in my heart when God took me to Vietnam, hadn't been before, I'd been to other Asian countries.

I grew up, you know, in the late fifties sixties, during the Vietnam war and everything.

And um, I remember flying in to HoChi men's city and I had this strange feeling well up inside of me, I suddenly had this bad feeling about the Vietnamese.

I suddenly had this flood of, of prejudice come in and bias, flood into my soul about Vietnam, Vietnamese people, and all the propaganda.

I haven't been fed as a young American growing up.

And I had to break through that.

I had to say, God, I need, I need a heart to love these people.

I had to break through the, just the, the bias that I didn't, I didn't ask for it.

It was just indoctrinated in me, you know, that's happening in our world more.

I, and I grew up without the internet.

Thank God, but this is what's facing our youth and this is what we're facing.

We're facing this constant indoctrination and bias in, in, in the politics and all these, the propaganda.

And so I had to break through that, but God, wasn't done and we ministered.

And we, we had great meetings there and everything.

And I remember the last meeting.

It was the last Sunday we were flying home on Monday and you know, this was a missions trip.

So I'd put out several thousand dollars to airfare.

We had to stay at our home hotels.

We, you know, we, we came and we blessed.

We gave and wanted to, but boy, God started working on my heart.

And I think I thought I broke through and we got all done and I'm exhausted.

It's the last Sunday.

And, um, I preached the last service and it was a great building and in Vietnam because of properties in Homan city, which is 10, 12 million.

And, uh, when they get church buildings, they buy houses and they're, they're, they're, they're shallow and narrow, but they're like seven or eight stories high.

And so they just go from floor to floor, cuz the property's so expensive.

So the church had gotten this building and they had been, they'd just gotten it.

They had renovated the downstairs so that they could have the church meeting on the second floor.

The pastor lived on the third floor was offices on the fourth floor was classrooms all the way up in the top was the prayer floor where they prayed up on top.

So they just used this tall, skinny building, the bottom building.

Uh, well Americans could fit maybe 60, 70 people.

The Vietnamese put 125 people in there.

They sit on the floor, need a knee.

They don't need chairs.

They just cram'em in.

So it was the first Sunday in this new building.

They were all excited.

They'd been painting the night before you, they walked in, there was actually like wet paints.

Don't touch.

So we're in there.

Everybody's excited.

The first Sunday we have the meeting and uh, we're sitting there and we get all done.

And then my friend who's been the missioner there for years.

Um, Doug paradise, Doug got up and said, you know what?

Um, we need to take a special offering today because the pastor and his wife are up on the second floor, but it's, they just basically have moved in.

They still need to, they still need to get settled up there.

They just have some expenses to settle so they can live there.

And then, so he's takes up a special offering for, you know, the church and everything.

And I'm just sitting there going.

That's a great idea, Doug.

Well done.

Doug, you go, baby.

I'm just sitting there and they're starting to get the offering ready.

And the Lord goes, you need to give to that offering and I'm going.

I don't have any money liar.

I had a$100 bill folded up, come on, sorry guys.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna reveal the truth.

We all have a little mad money tucked away somewhere ladies.

Sorry.

I'm sorry guys.

They probably know already.

Anyway.

In fact, when it goes missing now, you know who got it?

So anyway, I have to, I had a$100 bill stuffed in my wallet, you know, for an emergency.

I still had to fly home from Asia.

I thought, you know, if there's a problem or something gone, this is back.

So I had this reserve, you know, it was mine.

That's my a hundred dollars bill.

And I'm just sitting there and this offering's coming and he goes, you need to give him the offering going, I don't have any money.

He goes.

And when, when God goes silent, you already know the answer.

I don't have any money crickets.

And then it's like, I knew he was going after that.

Oh, that's my a hundred dollars bill.

I, I, I need that.

I might need that to get home.

I, I, I, I, I, I I'm in trouble and boy, God broke my heart.

He just broke my heart right there.

He broke that selfishness in me right there after all like I poured myself out, I paid$3,000 to get it.

I got still working on your heart son.

I, I gingerly took that hundred dollars bill out.

And the moment I dropped it in that offering, it's like the joy of the Lord came upon me.

I was like, wow.

I had just experienced something powerful from the holy spirit.

Why he comes alongside, when you're generous, the holy spirit shows up, come on, somebody Jesus said, I'm gonna send you the comforter, the para toast.

He'll you'll be able to call him alongside.

And when you're generous, he's right there.

He's the one that's prompting.

You he'll show up and he doesn't just get you through.

Like they're there, there it'll be okay.

He goes beyond that because he's a giver.

He's generous.

And so I got home from my trip and we made it through and everything.

And in two weeks time, I got a call from our office.

I just want you to know somebody just put$3,000 in your travel account.

Really that I hadn't expected.

I hadn't, honestly, I hadn't prayed for it.

See God said you've been generous.

And for me that was extravagant that a hundred dollars bill was an extravagant amount in my, and I gave it and God broke something in me.

And then he says, let me show you real extravagant.

Let me just replenish your travel account that I'd given up.

So you cannot outgive God, that's the reward.

The last point is this.

There is the reward of generosity.

That was the reward.

You know, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

That word is only used one time in all of the new Testament and the idea of that, it means to pay what is due and to give over and above what is due with extravagance.

That's that one time is used.

God is a rewarder.

How does God reward?

He gives over and above what's due with extravagance.

What a powerful world word that that describes God.

That's what he wants us to step into.

So to kind of just parallel this same story in mark chapter 14, I wanna focus on one thing that Jesus said, it's the same story, mark, chapter 14.

Mark 14 · chapter mention Mark 14 · chapter mention

But it's the, it's the same thing of the, the woman, you know, anointing the feet of Jesus with the expensive perfume, the same Pharisees are like, alright, I should have sold that money and give it to the, and here's what Jesus says.

Truly.

I say to you, mark 14, verse nine, truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.

Wow, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done, which is what heart of generosity, just being generous, giving all that she had because of what God did for her will be told in a Memorial, in memory of her, when you give generously generous giving is what giving with no expectation of anything in return.

She just gave, honestly, in Vietnam, I just gave it, it hurt for me.

It was one of those painful options.

Okay.

But God broke something in me, but in my heart, I was all like, and you better pay me back cuz you know what?

You know what?

I would've been happy with a hundred dollars back, you know?

It's like, God goes, no, I see your heart now son.

So I'm gonna pay you back.

Extravagantly, generous giving is giving without expecting anything in return.

She was so grateful that Jesus has raised raced her brother from the dead.

Should we not have that same Memorial?

Because see she anointed Jesus.

And she's the only one that anointed Jesus for burial because after he was put in the grave, they came to anoint him.

He was gone.

They missed the opportunity.

She caught the opportunity to anoint Jesus and Jesus.

That's a Memorial unto me.

It's not the amount that God rewards.

It's the attitude of the heart.

As I was praying this morning.

And it's something I have a quick conversation with Kelly and I was this whole thing about supply chain.

And I just came back from England and um, was with a pastor on Sunday who, um, he's a part-time pastor.

He, he act, he actually has a very important secular job.

He's actually in charge of supply chain for a big European country, uh, based in uh, uh, Sweden or Switzerland.

But he works in London and you know, he's consulted.

In fact, he, he just flew into Orlando yesterday and it's gonna be at a big supply chain conference at Disney all week.

And we, we were talking about this off and on and you know, I got this, I got to think, you know, what?

If it's true, if we do trust him in the economy we're living in.

If Paul said, my God will supply all your need, according to his riches and glory, it wasn't just get by supply.

I believe it's not only God wants to meet your current need.

He wants to be extravagant.

And I think the way we break that is to be generous.

And you're gonna have to find a way to be generous.

I'm just gonna challenge you.

Trinity, find a way to be generous this week and next week.

And throughout the summer, let's call it the summer of generosity at TCC.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Kinda like a subtitle like this is our summer of generosity.

It, it, it's not about money.

It's not about amounts.

It's about heart.

I'll give you one other quick example.

I just heard it from my son.

One of my sons, uh, out of COVID that he was doing health coaching and life coaching and that all shut down during COVID.

So, uh, he started another business.

He's a little bit entrepreneurial and because of the, the car business and all that's been going on with cars and rental cars, he started a used car.

So he got his license.

He's flipping cars and he is gone into what they call Turro cars, which are, it's like Airbnb for your car.

You, you, you, you rent your own car out and you's much reduced price because you don't pay the airport fees and all that.

So he's, he's getting that going.

It's going on the other day, he called me, he was telling me a story and he loves to help people see his heart is to help people.

So they're helping widows and, uh, moms.

And they're helping people in the community of, of the saints that are how, you know, if transportation, if you've got a transportation problem, you're gonna have a work problem.

You're gonna have stress.

You're gonna have anxiety.

You know, if your car's messed up, you know, it messes up your life.

And so he's this one couple came in, they were desperate.

They needed a car.

He needed to get to work.

They so, and Jay just helped him.

And they got this used car and they tidied up, he got the financing form and pushed it through.

And so they're going out and the car was pretty much on E it was, you know, a used car and the Lord just prompted him.

He said, give him 20 bucks for gas.

And he's like, uh, I just worked this great deal for him about me.

You know, he wrestled for a minute, but he just felt like I need to, you gonna bless him.

So he opens up his wallet and says here's$20 to get some gas.

And they looked at him, they said, we gotta drive home.

We have no money.

And we didn't know how we were gonna even get home, let alone, get to work tomorrow.

And that little TW see it wasn't amount.

It was the heart of generosity.

The next day Jayman sold three cars in the morning, three cars, boom, boom, boom.

Back to back.

God just said, there you go.

Extravagant payback because he a$20 bill to get some gas for a couple that was on the verge.

of collapsing.

That's the kind of little stuff that God wants you to do.

So I'm gonna pray for you.

And uh, I want you to stand with me.

I'm gonna bless you.

I'm gonna pray for you.

Um, God's working in all of us.

I'm working through this.

That's why I said, am I generous?

It's not like, are you okay?

So tri are you generous?

I'm just going clam.

Are you, are you in a generous place in your own heart?

And here's the good news.

We're not taking an offering.

So it's just about your heart and God's heart, but I wanna bless you.

And um, I'm gonna pray for you.

And then there's one other category.

I wanna pray for father.

This, just lift your hands for a moment.

And just like, God, I surrender seat.

We have to have a surrendered heart.

They gave themselves first to the Lord, give your heart to the Lord fresh today.

Oh, for grace to trust you more in a time of whether we call it recession or whatever's happening in our economy, who knows how to define it.

It's just getting into hard times.

But God, you are on your throne.

And my God will supply all of your needs.

According to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus, but not just supply the need of the day.

God, you wanna bless your people so we can be a blessing to others, pour out your generous heart on us.

So God let us be reminded of Christ on the cross for us, the most generous act in all of humanity and God, we got to receive that free freely we've received.

Maybe we freely give and may this be the summer of generosity?

Like no other may you break a spirit of poverty, break off a spirit of selfishness that says, you know, you should have done that.

You should sell that and give the boy that whole thing about no, we should be generous in the small ways.

And in the large ways, it's not about amount.

It's about a heart.

So God touched the hearts of every one of us.

Me too, me too.

I'm in on this, my own prayer.

I want you to touch my heart.

God, this, this summer, all the way down, even to the youth and even to children, children can just give a, the other half of their Popsicle, their little friend to go here.

I wanna share my Popsicle with you.

That's generosity.

Instead of going mine, that's my popsicles, right?

We can God touch the popsicles in our lives and every little thing.

But I wanna pray, especially if you're here today and you, and I'm just using Kelly, cuz it just prompted me.

If you have your own business, uh, businesses are, are struggling right now.

Like I know this cuz of my own son and some other people I know you may be in a little bit of fear.

What's what's what's happening with inflation.

And I want, I want to, if you're, if you have your own business, just lift your hand up, right where you're at.

You have your own business.

You're trusting.

Like you know what?

I don't have anybody else.

Yeah.

Come on up.

Come on SIS, come, come up here.

Let's do something fun.

Let's get out of our chairs.

Come on up here, come on, come on, come on.

Tonight's gonna be even better.

This is just the warm up.

Tonight's gonna be good.

You need to come.

If you have your own business, look at this.

Holy cow, Tyler, you got a bunch of entrepreneurs in here.

Look at this.

You know what I love about this?

There's no limits folks.

You have your own business.

There are no limits to what God can do.

All right, come on.

I'm gonna pray for you.

I'm gonna pray that God would just work in you.

A generous heart.

Don't withhold, keep tithing, but just go beyond that.

You want it.

God wants to move you into a place of extravagant giving, which, which is what?

Just more than somebody else.

Again, it's not amount, but make God work in your heart.

Just entrepreneurs as business owners.

That number one, God, you own it all just this morning.

Just make it fresh.

I know it's probably all, every one of you are here.

Say that's God's business, but all fresh.

It's not mine.

It's his.

And we dedicate these businesses to you, father that you would not only bless them for their own personal needs, but God, they would become extravagant givers in the kingdom.

And God, it would pour out and create a culture of generosity at TCC, just a culture of generosity that people would come in and go.

I just feel so generous here.

You know, I've been in churches.

I can feel a stingy spirit.

When I walk in the door, I can walk in and go, Ooh, these people are stingy.

And I don't even know.

I don't know anything other than there's a spirit that is trying to withhold.

It's mine versus a spirit of generosity.

May people walk into TCC and go, Ooh, I just feel the generous heart of God in this place.

See that opens people up for the gospel, opens people up.

It's so important how our hearts are tied to our finances.

That's why Jesus preached on it more than love and more and more than he did on prayer.

He taught on finances a lot cuz where your treasure is.

There is your heart.

Also father, I bless these businesses.

Everyone come on church, stretch your hands toward these, these precious workers in the kingdom, kingdom, businesses, God, we bless these businesses.

They are kingdom businesses to advance the kingdom of God to meet not only the needs of their families, but God to meet the needs of the kingdom of God in the advance of the gospel right here in this place.

And we thank you for it in Jesus name.

And everybody said, amen, go in God.

It's the summer of generosity.

Woohoo.

Amen.

Amen.