The Good Life: Stop Living in the “Not Enough” - September 28, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

I want to tell you a story this morning as we start about not enough.

When my kids were much smaller, we would take them to wherever they wanted to go to eat within reason.

And usually when I ask my kids, where do you want to go eat?

One, at least one, sometimes more would say, BK, let's go to Burger King.

I'm like, man, again, they always like me to take them to Burger King because

Melanie will not go there.

There's a story behind there, but that's for another sermon illustration another time.

And so I said, all right, let's go. There was only two of them that I had that

day, and I know one of them was Noah, and I can't remember which girl I had.

It wasn't Emma, I don't think. So that leaves me with one, right?

So we go to Burger King, and I'm not really hungry that day,

but I'm like, you know what?

I always try to game the value menu so we don't get the kids' meals because

they don't need that toy stuff, and they don't give out good toys anymore.

Back in the 80s, yeah, 70s, yeah, they gave out good toys, but not now.

So I said, forget the kids' meal.

I'm going to get them value meal. So I said, okay, kids' meal comes with this. Let's get this.

And, you know, I wasn't really wanting a bunch of fries for myself.

And so I decided let's upsize theirs and I'll just take some fries from them

and make my own. You know, go cheap. That's the way you got to do it.

Frugal, frugality, that's okay, right? And so we got our food,

came out, they went to the playland and played. and then kind of set out all

their food ready to eat and say the blessing.

And then they're kind of looking at what they got. All right,

it's everything they wanted.

And then I start to snitch some fries and make my little pile from their upsized fries.

And all of a sudden I hear, and I don't think it was from my daughter, so it only leaves one.

Hey, those are my fries. What are you taking my fries for?

I don't know. the little angry dad inside of me kind of got upset.

Because I'm like, this is all my food.

I'm the one that paid money for it. I upsized yours so I could have some of those fries, buddy.

But he was upset and.

Started thinking, where did he learn this behavior from? And all fingers pointed

back to me that there may have been a time or two where I said something to

the effect of, if you wanted fries,

then you should have ordered fries.

But nonetheless, I still got some fries. They still had plenty to eat and everything was good.

But I was thinking about this story this week as I was preparing this message.

And I wonder if God kind of feels like I felt that day.

If God kind of feels like, look, I've given you everything that you need.

I've given your food. I've given you a house, a job.

I've given you a beautiful family. I've given you all this. And yet,

when I just want to take back a little bit from it, you get so irate.

When I want something from you, then our perspective is, God,

you don't need what we have.

You've got the cattle on a thousand hills. You got all the French fries you want, God.

And maybe God speaks back to us and says, you know what, I don't need your fries.

I don't need what you have. But yet there's a purpose behind that.

And when we think about what God wants to do, he really doesn't need our stuff.

He doesn't need our money. He has all that he needs. But I think what God wants

to teach us is about his abundance.

God wants to teach us about his character, about his love that he has for us

that he wants to have instilled in us, his children.

He wants us to live the good life. Now, not a good life of stuff,

but a life of generosity.

The life of generosity, the good life, is not based on how much stuff you have,

but what you do with what God has given you.

And it's with that mindset that we launch out into this, what may be the final

sermon, if I don't get through all my points in a good amount of time.

There will be a second part of this sermon next week for the sake of time.

But I think about Paul's letter to the Philippians, because he had this mindset

about what God wanted him to live as far as the good life, a life of generosity,

a life that he wanted, and that was displayed by the church at Philippi.

And so this morning, if you're able and willing, I'd love you to stand as we

read Philippians 4, verses 15 through 19.

Philippians 4:15–19

Hear now the word of the Lord from the book of Philippians. Moreover,

as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel,

when I set out from Macedonia,

not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you only.

For when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need.

Not that I'm looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account.

I've received full payment and even more. I'm amply supplied.

Now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent,

they are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ

Jesus. I wonder if you'll say that with me this morning.

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Father, thank you for the opportunity we have to receive your word today.

Lord, may it take root in our heart. May it implant there, Lord, and continue to grow.

And Father, may we really catch what you have for us to live the good life,

life not of stuff, And Lord, but a life of generosity and blessing others, blessing you, God.

Father, birth that in our hearts, we pray this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you. You could be seated. You know, the question is, why generosity?

Why even look to that? And there's a proverb I want to read to you from the

message. The message paraphrase.

But it says in Proverbs 11, 24, the world of the generous gets larger and larger.

The world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

And so I asked you, which world do you want to live in? Now,

I know sometimes, yeah, you want everything small. You want it concise.

Sometimes there's control freak. So we want it to be small so we can control everything.

But I think what God has for us, what God desires is to live this large life,

to live this life, not of scarcity, but of generosity.

And sometimes we get into that mindset.

Some of us, and I include myself in that, we grew up with this scarcity thinking.

This scarcity mentality that there's not enough to go around.

I grew up, part of my life, in a trailer court. This doesn't happen with everyone,

but man, it's kind of cutthroat sometimes when you're living in a trailer court.

People don't think there's enough to go around And they'll sometimes take some

things that are yours because they think they need it.

And, you know, when we would serve at the food bank, even up in McCall,

there'd be times where we would have, you know, a lot of food and it was all

free and we'd give out as much.

But boy, there are some people that just love to hoard food.

And I'm like, dude, there's plenty to go around. You don't have to hoard your can of pureed tomatoes.

There's a ton of it. We've got cases of this stuff. But they would want to get as much as they could.

It's the scarcity thinking that there's only a limited amount and there's not

enough for all of us to share in that.

Well, God wants us to break out of that.

God wants us to get out of the idea of only having this limited amount.

God has unlimited things planned for us.

We want to live a big life, a life that's good. We want to live this life in

such a way that we refuse to buy into the scarcity thinking that there's only

so much to go around because we serve a great God. We serve a big God.

We serve a God that we just recited a verse together.

He's got glorious and abundant riches.

And when we think about this God, how do we get into this mindset? A generosity is the key.

Being generous in such a way that we are blessed, that God is blessed,

but that others are blessed too.

The good life is the generous life. When you're in school, you probably read the diary of Anne Frank.

One of the things that she is purported to say is this, no one has ever become poor by giving.

That may or may not be true, but that is something that she has said,

and she's some pretty severe things in her life.

What I want to propose to you today is that generosity will change your life.

How? How's it going to change your life? Well, I want to give you four ways

today that generosity can change your life. And the first one is this.

Generosity sets me free. Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty I'm free at last.

Free from what? Free from the love of money. Remember, it's the love of money

that's the root of all evil.

Free from the fear of the lack of not having enough money. Maybe set free from that.

Here's what Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 6, 17 and 18.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or not to

put their hope in well, which is so uncertain,

but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

Boy, you want a power verse for generosity. It's right there.

I love this part in this scripture passage.

Don't put your hope in wealth because it's so uncertain, but put your hope in

God who provides richly with us everything for our enjoyment.

I love that phrase. Well, how do I not love money?

We need it. We go to lunch later. If you're not going to the parent meeting

where there's a free lunch for you, you're going to need money, right?

You're going to need money to buy unless you've got some of those pizza gift

card or pizza cards that have been all punched out. I've got some of those.

If you need one, let me know.

Someone once said, whoever still loves money hasn't given enough away.

It's more blessed to give than receive, Jesus said. Remember that?

We talked about that last week.

When we think about being generous, what we need to do is to take the money

from our heart, put it into our hands so that now it can be used of God.

So now we can give it. We can give it away to something that we know is going

to benefit the kingdom of God for an eternity,

to give it away to people that are a couple of dollars really might bless and

be transformative in their own lives for something good, for something that

changes a perspective maybe that they had.

Oh, you Christians, you're just a bunch of stingy people. You never want to give out.

Oh, I just need this last two dollars, man, I've got to buy my baby some formula.

And a person that's really in need, if they're down to their last straw,

they're thinking of dire things they're going to do with their baby because

they can't afford to get the formula.

And you go and you give.

And the love that you shared opens up something in their mind to receive from God.

And they're able to get the formula. And on their way to get the formula,

they meet another believer who shares the gospel message with them.

And what it does for a believer is when we're able to give, now I don't have

to worry about the $5 that was in my pocket anymore.

It's giving away. I can't do anything about that no more.

It's gone. I've blessed others with it. And so my mind's not going to be on what's in my pocket.

We went to Jamaica a few years back, well, several years back now.

And man, I was always having my hand like this, walking through Jamaica,

you know, because I brought a little bit of cash money.

We changed some into the Jamaican dollars, but man, that's a scary place in

some parts, especially some of the parts we were in.

I was like, am I going to get killed for the 50 cents I got in my wallet?

50 cents American, but like 150 Jamaican. I can't remember what it was back then.

And so where was my thought? It wasn't on the people I was ministering to.

It was on, oh, I don't want to lose my money here.

And a lot of us, we get into that scarcity thinking, into that scarcity mentality.

Instead of saying, oh, even if I lose this, God's still going to take care of me.

Even if I have nothing left to give, God's going to bring something along.

And when we think about, especially the scripture that we read,

you know, how do we want our world to be? Larger and larger or smaller and smaller?

See, what we do is we can enjoy our money, but we enjoy it more when we're generous,

when we can give that away as God leads us.

See, we don't pray our way out of greed.

We give our way out of greed. And when we give, we give.

We don't have to be afraid. We don't have to fear not having enough because

we're trusting in God that God's going to bring it along.

We said last week, Evelyn Amy Laux was born. Praise God. And we praise the Lord for this new life.

And you know, when you have a baby, when you have your first baby,

there's a whole compartment of your heart that is unlocked.

And even if you were loving before and you had all this love to give,

when you have a child that's yours, that God created with you and your wife, wow, it's amazing.

There's a whole new capacity to love that is unlocked.

It's like if you're playing a video game and you come to this section and it

unlocks a whole new section of the video game.

Oh, it's powerful. You gamers, you get me. You know what I'm talking about.

There's whole new capacity, a whole new world to be lived, a whole new life

that you get to pour into, pour God's love into.

Well, the same thing happens when you give.

There's a whole new section of your heart that is unlocked.

There's a whole new part of you where you can love God radically.

With a new part of your life, you can love at a different level.

There's a way to love God more in that giving. Take an example from Abraham's life.

When you look to the Old Testament, Abraham was given a challenge.

He was saying, you need to go up to this mountain and you need to sacrifice.

I want you to take your son Isaac. I want you to gather the materials necessary

and come to the top of the mountain and I will give you the sacrifice.

You know, God didn't say, hey, bring Ishmael with you and you can sacrifice him.

Boy, that would have solved a lot of problems maybe in Abraham's life,

you know, but no, he didn't. He said, I want you to take Isaac with you.

You know, God didn't want for Isaac to be killed. God did not want for Ishmael to be killed.

What did God want through this whole crazy scene in Genesis chapter 22?

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

Look again, 22 verse 2, take your only son, your son, your only son,

Isaac, whom you love so much.

Take him, the one through whom the promise would come, the promise,

the covenant that God made with Abraham was going to come through Isaac.

God told Abraham, risk it all and bring Isaac. We're going to go up and we're going to sacrifice.

God did not want for Isaac to be killed. He wanted Abraham's heart.

He wanted the focus of Abraham's heart not to be on the recipient of the covenant,

but to be on the one who gave the covenant.

He wanted Abraham's surrender.

And so if you've been in church, you've read through Genesis before,

you know, it came to this point.

Abraham surrendered. He did what God said, brought Isaac. and at the last moment,

God provided the sacrifice, which was not his only son.

God provided the ram stuck in the thicket to be the sacrifice that God required.

Jehovah Jireh, God, my provider. Do we still trust that God will provide?

Are we going back, revert back to what I talked about last week and we're just

trusting in that almighty dollar.

What are we trusting? Are we trusting God? Jehovah Jireh, when you give,

I want you to know that God doesn't take, but he provides.

What we're giving away isn't ours anyway. It belongs to God.

If someone else needs our fries, then we need to be willing to give those fries away.

When you give, you just don't gain provision.

You gain a testimony as well. Look at the testimony that Abraham had.

He gained a testimony of how God was faithful to him when it came down to the very last minute.

And it's a testimony still today that we can trust that God will be with us.

Secondly, this morning, I want to tell you that generosity connects me to a kingdom purpose.

Not only does generosity come along and open up a whole new area of life for

us, But it gives us a purpose in that You know, our money when we give Especially

when it's money We give of many, many other things Our time,

our talents Sometimes our treasure Sometimes our stuff,

But our money goes where Sometimes you could never go physically.

We read about the Philippians. Thessalonica was about a hundred miles away from Philippi.

Back then, that was a long way. You couldn't hop in your car and make it a quick trip in two hours.

It was a long day's journey. And for them, the church at Philippi, they helped Paul.

They gave of what they had.

Their money was going to where they could not go.

I know in this church, We love to do work and witness trips.

We love to go, but just some of us can't. And it's cost prohibitive sometimes for us too.

But like we did today, when we gathered our pennies and dimes and nickels and

dollars, and we put them in these alabaster boxes, your money's going where

you might not even know where this is going.

It's going to go to Africa, to a church that is booming, to where they've got

people come to Christ left and right.

They're under the threat of persecution, and they're looking for a physical

structure so they can pack in instead of being under this gigantic tree.

They want to bring people in. They want to have a ministry center.

And while we could organize a work and witness trip and try to go there,

they're going to receive alabaster funds.

They're going to go to them to help them build the structure with the people,

with the men, the young men in their church.

These funds are going to go to a church that God is moving in and it's booming,

but it's in an old church building.

Kind of like the first church I ever pastored. in Springville,

California, an old church that had been there a long time, but things were breaking down.

It's on the side of a hill where my office was.

I could look down and say, I hope this support does not break.

I will tumble all the way down to the Tule River.

But it goes to help refurbish those churches that are growing and people are

getting saved and sanctified and their lives are being transformed.

When we can't go, we know that we can trust that God will have his resources

go there to provide what is necessary for that to happen.

So you might not be able to go to Africa. You might not be able to go to Myanmar.

You might not be able to go to Thailand and the whole of Eastern Asia there.

But you know what? We've been able to go through what we've given.

We've been able to go through what God has blessed us with, that we were able to send.

It wasn't ours anyway. It belonged to the Lord. And we were just setting those

funds free, taking them from our heart and saying, here you go,

God, let's release these for your purpose, for what you're doing.

We are connected to the mission of God.

And when you connect your money to the mission, it connects your money to eternity.

And it brings fulfillment in your life, but also in the life of those that are blessed.

In 2 Corinthians 9, verse 12, Well, the scripture says, so two things,

2 Corinthians 9:12

two good things will result from this ministry of giving.

The needs of the believers in

Jerusalem will be met and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.

You know, people that have a lot of money, who make a lot of money,

a lot of times they go into depression because they discover that money alone does not satisfy them.

Many people seek out other things for their satisfaction because they think

making all this money, having all this cash, having all this stuff,

it's going to satisfy the longing and the need of their heart.

And they try to fill everything in that hole in their heart,

but it's only Christ that can fill that. And there's no contentment there.

But I got to tell you, when you give your money, your resources,

your time to a mission, it connects to eternity. And that's what brings fulfillment.

Reference back to the Jamaica trip that we went to with the McCall Church of

the Nazarene. It was a rough, rough time.

There was some hard work we did out in the humidity, some crazy storms that blew through.

And it was hard. And we're like, why are we spending our time doing this?

Mixing concrete the hard way.

Why are we doing all these hard things? Well, it blessed the people that were right there with us.

The people that instead of sitting on dirt was now going to be able to have a chair on concrete.

The people that were struggling in some ways were now going to be blessed that

now they had some resources to educate the youth, the children in the school that they ran.

You see, the fulfillment or the contentment came after we did the hard work,

after we fundraised, after we raised our own support, after we paid and got

there in the plane and did all the hard work.

The fulfillment came after that because we were blessed to see how God was using

what we brought to bless the other people that were there and continues to do that.

See, giving is a ministry. Some of you, you have the spiritual gift of giving.

It's something supernaturally enabled. You can just give.

There's no scarcity mentality amongst you because God has just erased that.

And you give, and then you have more to give. And you're like,

well, where'd this come from? All right, I'll give. And God just keeps providing.

It's like the never-ending resource with God. When you give,

the needs are taken care of. According to the scripture, lives are changed.

How are you ministering in this way? All of us, even if we don't have the spiritual

gift of giving, we can give and we can give gloriously. A few more points here.

Generosity not only connects you to a kingdom purpose, not only does it set

you free, but it changes how you see your life.

Galatians 6, 7 through 9 says, do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked.

A man reaps or harvests what he plants or sows. Whoever sows to please their

flesh from the flesh will reap destruction.

Whoever sows to please the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a

harvest if we do not give up.

Folks, what we got to do and what many of you do and some of you are is we got to think like farmers.

We've got to live like a sower, but think like a farmer.

It's not all about the right here and right now, and what do I need in this very moment?

It's not about instant gratification.

It's about what's going to happen next.

Sowing seed we do for the future. We don't expect an immediate harvest.

When you guys are out there planting, putting your corn in the ground,

you're not expecting that you'll come tomorrow and there'll be a full-blown

corn plant there, do you?

You know that it takes time. You know that it takes work. You know that it takes nurturing.

You know that down the line, you're praying for a bountiful harvest.

I mean, Les, I don't think when you go out there on the tractor,

you're eating your seed corn because you're afraid that there's not going to

be nothing to eat tomorrow.

You're trusting that God's going to take that seed when it's planted in the

ground and it's going to yield a harvest in the future.

You know, we don't, that would be unhealthy to eat your seed corn and just do

that. Plus, there wouldn't be anything in the future for you.

See, farmers see the potential of the seed.

They know that someday they're going to reap because right now they're sowing, they're planting.

And we've got to get into that mentality too. It's not all about right now and

what's happening right now and only what we have right now.

But it's, God, what do you want to do?

And once you give us this great vision of what you want to do,

we have to take a step of faith and trust that you're going to bring it to fruition,

and that we pray that we fasted about these things.

And yeah, it might be bigger than us. It might be bigger than our resources,

but let's see what you're going to do, God.

And so God will bring that about.

Again, it's not one of these name it and claim it thing. It's not one of these

prosperity gospel things. We don't give to get.

We give so that we can give again. We give and we know God's going to take care

of us. And there's going to be another need that arises so we can give again.

And again, it's not just about your money. I know we've talked about that a

lot this month so far. But it's even about your time, about your gifts and your

talents to give out to other people.

It's almost what we'd call irrational generosity. It doesn't make sense.

Well, you want me to give my last dollar to this person that's in need, to this cause?

When the Holy Spirit has placed it on your heart and you know it's God wanting

you to give and you give it, you also trust that God's going to take care of you as well.

Don't have to bargain with God. Say, God, okay, I'll give this,

but you need to get $10 in my wallet before the end of the day.

No, you know it doesn't work like that.

It's not for a perfect life, but we're sowing seeds to the kingdom of God.

Really quickly at the time I have left and hopefully finish this last point,

I want to tell you a story about my friend, Steve. Steve Pleasant.

I call him Mix Master Steve. When I first started out in the Church of the Nazarene,

I was a youth pastor in Lemoore, California.

And Steve and his wife, Josephine, they were there.

And we were all excited. It came

for the district. It's called Central Cal Extreme is what it was called.

But it was a day of singing competitions, of sports competitions.

And I had assembled kind of a good size youth group and we were ready to play

some basketball. But I discovered we had to have uniforms.

And so I stood up like happens sometimes. I said, please congregation,

give me some money so I can get some uniforms.

So this wonderful group of teens, I had them come all up front,

looked sad, looked like they were needy.

I need basketball uniforms for them. And then left it there.

Nothing came in the offering. I'm not a good fundraiser by any means.

But later on, Mix Master Steve came by and he gave me a whole bunch of money.

Now, you got to understand, Steve and Josephine, they had special needs.

They were very high functioning with their special needs. Their kids had some

very severe special needs.

But Steve came by, and he gave me exactly what I needed for those uniforms.

I said, Steve, you don't need to do this. No, pastor. No, I want to do it.

And here, here's a mixtape I made for you. He always gave me mixtapes of Christian music.

I said, well, I'll take the tape. And not too long after that,

my pastor, senior pastor called.

Hey, Mike, did Steve Pleasant give you some money? I said, yeah,

I'm a little puzzled by it. He said, hang on to it.

I need to get that back to give it back to him. I said, okay, I understand.

Now, the question is, do you think that money that they gave from their heart

was accredited to their eternal account in heaven? They gave from the heart.

They didn't think about if they're going to need to pay their rent next week

or if they're going to have to pay the utilities or have gas to get back and forth to work.

They just wanted to give. They believed so much in the mission.

They believed in these young men that just wanted to go play basketball.

Even if we lost every game, they still wanted to be part of that.

God, I think, gave them credit for their gift and giving. Even if the senior

pastor came and said, you know, we really need to give this back. I said, yeah, okay.

Guess what? We still had uniforms. God provided through another avenue.

I could have had a conflict with my senior pastor and said, no,

they gave it. I'm using this money. That wouldn't have been good.

But no, God still provided. Remember, Jehovah Jireh, God, my provider,

he still came through for these young men.

Now, like I said, we lost every game, but boy, we had fun doing it.

I didn't play and I'm a horrible coach, but it was still a fun time together.

The point I want to make from that story is that blessing is in the giving, not in the receiving.

Steve passed away a couple years ago. I was able to see him and his wife when

we were on sabbatical, just to hug him one more time.

But man, his generous spirit still lives on. And that brings me to this next part here.

The last point, you see, generosity connects our hearts to the next generation.

God rewards generosity toward those who can't repay it.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, And whoever gives one of these little ones

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

only a cup of water, a cold water, in the name of a disciple,

assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.

You know, the next generation cannot reward you for your generosity. Thank you.

Lot of us from some of the ways that we've given, we won't ever know until we

go to be with Jesus and even until everyone's gathered together.

And even though a next generation can't reward us, we know that God rewards us.

God will reward you. There's a church that had bought some land and they were

growing and they're excited about a building that was going to come.

They broke ground on the building.

And then, as happens sometimes, the biggest givers in the church left.

Oh, talk about a stressful time for a pastor and a church board.

They didn't know what they were going to do. And they went to their knees in

prayer and they prayed, Lord, you've given us this land. You've given us all this excitement.

You're bringing in new people left and right all the time that are meeting Jesus and they're growing up.

How are we going to do this? Oh, the Lord, they cried out to God,

and especially the pastor said, Lord, help us.

And he felt like the Lord said, if you build to minister to the rich,

they will be your source.

But if you build for the next generation, I'll be your source.

Their perspective, their scarcity mentality was thrown out the window through this prayer.

They began to say, okay, God, we're going to trust you. God, you will be our source.

Not our rich givers that left, but God, we're going to trust in you.

We're going to reorient our focus to seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And then you know what? When they did that, everything else fell into place.

God blessed them. The building was completed.

They had the dedication service and God continued to bring the increase. Praise the Lord.

You give to the next generation, God will personally, he becomes your rewarder,

but again, he becomes your provider.

God will supply. Do you believe that today? Folks, I don't want you to be afraid

when there are large needs.

God's going to come through. When fear is crouching at the door and saying,

I'm going to get you, we don't be afraid because we trust God that God is going to be providing for us.

We trust in his provision that he will make it come through,

that God truly is our provider, that God truly will take care of us as we make

wise choices and as we follow his will.

And when it comes to the next generation, boy, when I was at CU at the poll,

I had bought some donuts on behalf of y'all. I hope that's okay.

I know it's not the healthiest, but we did.

And I left seven boxes of donuts at the high school because I thought,

man, high school is going to have the most. And I took five boxes over to the middle school.

And wouldn't you know it, there was way more kids at the middle school than

the high school. And I didn't have enough donuts to go around.

But yet the kids were still polite. I saw some of them sharing.

They'd break their donut in half, give one to their friend. Not the part they

ate off of, but the normal part.

But it's exciting. Here we have this next generation at CU at the pole.

And they were excited to be around there. They were excited to gather right

before school in front of everyone that kept walking by and they weren't afraid

to get in a circle and to pray.

It's the next generation that we're investing into because we know God's going

to raise them up until his return.

We can't ever go wrong in investing in them.

Folks, we get blessed not just eternally, but we do eternally,

but even in the here and now, seeing God bless some young people.

See, if we're going to live a generous life, we know that reflects God's abundance

and His purpose that He's going to provide to us.

So folks, I finished the sermon so you don't have to hear it again next week.

Just, amen, I heard that. Don't worry, I'll have another one.

Let's not be scared to give when God places it in our hearts to give,

when there's a need that we can meet.

Let's give. Let's give our time when someone that is broken comes to us and

just needs someone to talk to, just needs a listening ear.

Let's not be afraid to pray for those people, to ask, can I pray for you?

Boy, that unlocks so many doors.

When there's an opportunity to come up and you have the skills and the gifts,

the talents to meet that need, boy, step up and say, hey, let me try that.

Those of you going to the parent meeting, there might be a need that you could meet.

Don't be afraid to meet it. God's gonna provide you the time to do that.

And I know time is a scarce resource, we think, sometimes. But remember,

don't buy into scarcity thinking.

Evaluate your time and see if there's more that you can give to God.

If there's stuff you have, stuff you don't need, stuff that God wants to use,

even if it's your French fries.

Hey, be willing to share those with somebody else.

Folks, I love you. I want you to live the good life.

And the good life's about what's going on here, what God's doing here,

outside of here, what God's doing in your family, in your friend group,

with your workers, as their interest in Jesus is piqued,

as their interest in what God's doing in the world is piqued.

And you're like, Let me share with you what God's doing.

So don't be afraid to live the good life, and in doing so, being a light and being salt to the world.

Let's pray together. Father, in the name of Jesus, we just come before you, thanking you, God.

Us to be part of your character, of your love, and that is your generous.

We know John 3.16 says, for God so loved that he gave.

And God, what you gave to us was something we could never acquire on our own

because it was your son, Jesus Christ, your only begotten son who died on a

cross for us, who paid the penalty for sin that we could never repay.

Anytime we tried, God, we only made it worse, but Father, you gave us what we needed.

You gave us a chance at a restored relationship with you, God, through Jesus.

Lord, help us to make the most of that. Help us to live this good life of generosity,

reflecting you, God, in your character and your love for others.

And so, Lord, help that seed to grow in us this week. Help us to look for ways

to be generous, God, with what you have given us.

And it's in Christ's name that we do pray. Amen.

I invite the praise team to come up for our closing song.

And while they're coming this morning, if this generosity thing has piqued your

interest, if maybe you've been exploring Jesus, you want to know more about

him, I just invite you, come down while they're singing. They ain't going to care.

Come down and let's talk about Jesus. Catch me afterward even.

Let's talk more about what Jesus can do in your life, how he can bring this

generous spirit to bear in your own spirit, your own personality.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast.

You can find a copy of today's sermon, as well as other sermons,

and the sermon outline from today on our church's website, www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.