Grateful For

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Last week we kicked off this radical generosity with a sermon called A Grace People.

Today the sermon's title is Grateful for.

Would you say that with me?

In Silicon Valley, everything feels like a competition, doesn't it?

How fast are you moving?

How fit do you look?

How much have you accomplished by now?

Are you keeping up?

We track it, post it, refresh it, count the likes, even down to the pity likes from mom.

Because deep down we're all asking this question: are we winning?

Are we succeeding?

There's an incredible question I think we need to ask.

How will you measure your life?

Because what if we're measuring the wrong things?

Or even worse, what if we're actually winning?

And still lose at what matters most.

And I believe the same is true for the church.

Harvest Business School professor Clayton Christensen, uh, himself a Harvard alum and an Oxford Rose scholar, noticed something unsettling about his classmates.

Uh each year, uh Oxford, Harvard would do these reunion, or every five years, these reunions for these classes.

Very extravagant uh to get them to come back and obviously donate.

Um first five years, uh your reunion.

Notice everybody came back, they're looking great, they're upwardly mobile, you know, titans of industry, married, the picture perfect life.

The next five years, ten years later, people are missing.

So where did they go?

You begin to ask around, and so-and-so is on their third marriage, so-and-so, there's kids aren't talking to them, another person is involved in a scandal, another person's imprisoned.

And he teaches uh in his course at Harvard uh a the final class is how not just to win in business, but how to succeed in life.

And he wrote a fantastic book, if you want to read it, called How Will You Measure Your Life.

Because what you measure reveals what matters.

What you're currently measuring reveals what matters most to you.

And in the Silicon Valley, uh, I think in just Western culture, we tend to measure this, summed up in two words.

Getting ahead.

What are you doing?

Well, I'm just trying to get ahead.

But you know, and so if you're not ahead, what are you doing?

Well, I'm not getting ahead, I'm just trying to keep up.

You know, it's a fast-paced world.

I'm just trying to keep up with them.

I'm just trying to keep up here.

I'm trying to get ahead, and but if you're not getting ahead, and if you're not keeping up, what are you doing?

You're falling behind.

And now you're like, I'm I'm falling behind, I can't quite keep up.

I'm just trying to get ahead, and we feel exhausted, overwhelmed, uh, and we just feel like, what in the world am I doing?

I'm stuck.

And then the other problem is if you really get ahead, often you realize you didn't end up where you wanted to end up.

What you measure reveals what you matter.

And what we measure here in the Silicon Valley is getting ahead.

And I want to invite us, scripture wants to invite us to ask a different question.

Instead of how do you get ahead, how do you live lives uh others are grateful for?

How do you live a life that other people are grateful for instead of getting ahead, grateful for?

And that's exactly where the apostle Paul leads us next as we're continuing in the letter of Corinthians.

If you got your Bibles, you can open them up to 2 Corinthians chapter 9.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

Uh it's in your notes as well or on the screen.

Corinth was the Silicon Valley of the ancient world, a bustling hub of wealth, innovation, moral looseness, city addicted to status, ambition, excess.

It was through this young church, a year before, they'd made this grand pledge to help the church in Jerusalem, this mother church in crisis.

There's a famine, persecution, crushing poverty.

Paul's collecting a donation from the Gentile churches in Asia Minor to come support them.

They said, We're all in.

And a year later, they're struggling to follow through on their commitment.

So Paul writes to them.

Last week we looked at the Macedonian church, this small podunk church who extreme poverty uh welled up in rich generosity, their severe suffering, yet overflowing joy.

And once more, Paul is then going to invite us and share how do you live a life that others are grateful for and how do you measure what matters most?

The sermon really can be summed up in just four words: Principle, practice, promise, and power.

Principle, practice, promise, power.

That's the outline.

You got it with me?

You were with me?

Yeah?

Will you say that with me?

Principle, practice, promise, power.

Very good.

The principle is simply this.

Paul's going to give us a principle in regards.

He says, You reap what we sow.

We reap what we sow.

2 Corinthians 9, 6 says, remember this.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

We're talking about generosity, and he says there's a principle at play.

Sowing and reaping, the law of the harvest.

What you sow determines what you grow.

Cassie got me these lovely pumpkin seeds right here.

I have some pumpkin seeds.

Now, if I plant a pumpkin seed, what do I expect to grow?

Well, a plant, a pumpkin plant, but that was close enough, yeah.

Yeah, a pumpkin, a pumpkin plant.

I don't plant a seed into the ground and expect, you know, um uh corn or tomatoes or anything else.

In fact, we did a series that kicked off uh our year called Cultivate, where we talked about this principle in our spiritual lives.

Here, Paul is applying it now into our entire life of generosity.

We reap what you sow.

What you sow determines what you grow.

Now, here's what's interesting is that the word that the apostle Paul uses where it says, you know, when you sow generously, you reap generously.

It's the Greek uh word eulogia.

It's where we get our English word uh eulogy, as you can hear.

Eleven times it's used for blessing in the New Testament.

It's only used 16 times.

Eleven of those times it's used for blessing.

Four of those times, uh, four other times are right here where it's translated gift or generous.

Now, a eulogy, this word, is a verbal blessing.

It's a speaking of life over another person.

Paul intentionally uses this word when he's talking about generosity, and I want you to feel the difference of this passage if we just read it with blessings.

So I thought it necessary, this is verse five, uh, to urge you, brothers and sisters, uh, to uh brother to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the blessing you had promised.

Then I'll be ready as a blessing, not as one grudgingly giving.

Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

Whoever sows blessing will also reap blessing.

This is interesting, though, by the way.

Because I think this shifts our framework and understanding of generosity, at least it does for me.

Because I often just think about generosity as like, okay, I got twenty dollars.

And I'm gonna give you twenty dollars.

Right?

I got twenty dollars, I'm gonna give you twenty dollars.

Let's see here.

Warren Burger, all right.

Warren Burger, come on up.

Warren Burger, come on up.

Come on, oh yeah, come on up here.

Lustle on up.

This will be quick.

It'll be painless.

And by the way, you're gonna make 20 bucks on it.

Is that cool?

Yeah, okay, good.

Um, so I uh here's the way I often think about I'm yeah, now you want to be a part of it.

I'm gonna give you$20, right?

And who's the focus on me?

I'm focused on what I'm losing.

I'm giving it, and so now I don't have it.

Don't take that, right?

What are you doing?

How could you?

Right?

This frames is like I get a bless you.

Here's 20.

Yeah, you can take it.

And you can spend it on whatever you like.

It's yours.

And you can even treat your friends or not.

That's all totally up to you, whatever you want to do.

All right, you can go sit down.

No, it's yours.

It's literally yours.

Literally yours.

All yours.

All yours.

The perspective shift is powerful.

Giving is actually blessing.

But when I think about it, and maybe this is for you, when I think about giving, I'm so like, oh, I'm giving that, and it's like I'm focused on me, but I'm like, I get to bless.

How cool! It's like when I when I'm part of that, when I'm generous, I'm actually blessing, I'm pouring out blessings on them.

What an amazing way to live and an opportunity that we get to have.

The principle we reap what we sow, so what you sow determines what you uh grow, and so we get to plant or we get to bless.

Uh secondly, we reap in proportion to what we sow.

We get that.

If I plant one seed or ten seeds or twenty seeds or however many seeds, but if I just if$20, I get to bless this much.

$40, I get to bless this much.

We reap in proportion to what we sow, and then thirdly, we never reap in the same season that we sow.

I remember doing this with cultivate, right?

I had the seed and I put it in the soil, and this is what we do, right?

Because we live in this instant, immediate, uh, everything happens right now, culture, but uh nature doesn't work that way, and God doesn't work that way, and we're like, we put it in the ground and go, what happened?

What's wrong?

Nothing's wrong.

The truth is, many of us are reaping today what we sowed five years ago, ten years ago.

The question for most of us in this room is, what are you sowing?

And what kind of harvest do you want to reap?

What kind of harvest do you want to reap in your life five years?

Oh, let's take it back because you know that's the one year from now.

What kind of harvest do you want to reap in your life, in your marriage, in your relationships, in your singleness, in your career?

What kind of harvest do you want to reap one year from now, five years from now, ten years from now?

You never reap in the same season that you sow, but the law of the harvest is simple.

We do reap what we sow.

And Paul says, when it comes to generosity, we reap what we sow.

The principle, you reap what we sow.

The practice is then generosity is not losing.

I didn't lose 20 bucks just now.

It was sowing.

The practice, generosity is not losing but sowing.

He goes on to say, each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

In fact, the word there for cheerful, it's hilarious.

We translate it in the English hilarious.

God loves a hilarious giver.

Years ago, I was sitting with some friends.

They're some of the most generous humans on the planet, uh, both financially, relationally, with their house, uh, with their time, with their gifts.

And generally, people who are generous financially are generous in every other area because it's a domino that spills out, spills over.

And I remember asking them, like, like, what is it that motivates your generosity?

And they're like, it's easy, Ryan.

And their eyes lit up, big smiles, and they're like, the joy of getting to partner with God is awesome.

Like, it is so fun.

Like, we just recognize that all of our money, it's his, and we just go, God, what do you want to do?

All of our stuff, all of our time, and we just get a partner with what God's doing in people's lives.

It's a blast.

What an incredible way to live.

Generosity is not losing but sowing.

Let me give you four words to guide our generosity and giving.

First, prayerful giving, decided in your heart is what the Apostle Paul says.

Not just a, you know, I heard a great sermon and I just, you know, feel like either guilty to do it or prompted or inspired.

But that, like, a God, what do you want me to do?

All that I have is yours.

How do you want me to uh steward what you've given me?

Remember when my daughter was in sixth grade, and she's always had a heart for uh orphans in particular.

I remember when she was actually in 10th grade, uh, 10 years old, we went to a trip, just her and I and another friend and his daughter to mission in Mexico with an orphanage that now our high schoolers go to at the mission.

She loved it working with the kids, and then when she's in sixth grade, we actually got to go to Haiti together and serve the kids and community there.

And she just has this heart for kids.

And she wanted to like support one of those compassion international kids.

But there's this like problem, she's in sixth grade, she doesn't have a lot of money, and that starts out with great, but it's like$29.99 a month, and it's coming every month.

And like, honey, you don't have money, and well, I have birthday money.

It's like fantastic.

Take time, pray, figure this out.

That girl started working babysitting gigs faithfully, building her little empire to support a compassionate international kid.

She started from sixth grade, now she's graduated and you know, starting as a junior in college.

One kid had already, you know, aged out and she's supporting another kid.

It's actually gone up, though, it's$39.99.

Inflation even impacts generosity.

Um but if it's if God can do this in a sixth grader's mindset and understanding, how much more should we go?

Yeah, we're gonna take time and prayerfully give.

Secondly, priority give.

We generally give what's left over.

If there's anything left over, priority giving is give first, not last.

The norm of the practice that we have in our culture today is consume what you make, save if you can, give if there's any left over.

And the average American, by the way, lives off 110% of their income.

So, how much is left over?

Not a whole lot, actually, none.

You're in debt.

Consume what you make, save if you can, give if there's any left over.

Financial peace says, I'm going to give to God first.

When I get uh that paycheck, I'm gonna set the first portion aside for God, and then I'm gonna save and invest.

That's really important, and then live on the rest.

And some of this feels really overwhelming.

Or you're up to your eyeballs in debt, and you you're like financial peace.

No, I'm just you can buy.

I get it.

That that's why we're doing this freed up course.

That's why Nathan's leading it.

He's gonna be at the front.

Come talk to him.

You can find out more information at awakeningchurch.com forward slash event.

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Prayerfully give priority.

We have so many priorities where you'd say, I'm gonna make generosity a first priority, not a last priority, and then percentage give.

Choose a percentage.

Start where you're at.

Maybe it's 1%, 2%, 10%.

Here's how Jenny and I do it.

It's simple.

We started this from the very first day we're married.

We just started giving 10% to God.

When we had a little, and we had a when we had a little bit more.

When we weren't sure how we were gonna make it through the month, and we knew, okay, we we have what we need to make it through the month.

My job, it's just pretty simple.

I get a paycheck and it comes in regularly, so every time I get that paycheck, I have it automated.

The first 10% goes outside, goes to awakening church.

My wife's in real estate.

So when she closes a deal, the first check she writes, she writes it to awakening.

It's this percentage giving where you just set aside, okay, I'm gonna prayerfully prioritize first, and then choose a percentage.

Start where you're at.

Here's what's incredible is some people, and I know uh a couple who now reverse tithe.

They get so excited about this that they started with 10%, then they moved to 11%, and then they moved to 12%, and they now live, are able to live off of 10% of what they bring and give away 90% of what they bring in.

And they're like, this is the best ever.

Do you know how much we get to be a part of?

It is so fun.

The early church, Irenaeus church father, said it this way the Jews were constrained to uh regular payments of the tithe.

That's 10% of giving Christians who have liberty assign all their possessions to the Lord, bestowing freely, not the lesser portions of their property, since they have the hope of greater things.

We give prayerfully, priority, percentage, and then finally progressive.

Or you just choose, okay, a little bit, God, God, how how do you want to progressively grow my heart in generosity?

Would you just ask that?

Would you have that courage?

Maybe it's with your time.

Maybe it's with your words.

Maybe it's with your talents, your gifts.

Maybe it's with, okay, there's a percentage that God's like tugging on your heart.

Ah, this is hard.

But progressive giving.

The principle.

We reap what we sow.

The practice, giving is sowing, not losing.

The promise is God's provision for those who practice generosity.

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

As it is written, He has distributed freely, He's given to the poor, His righteousness endures forever.

He who supplies seed to the sower, bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

Provision, God's provision for those who practice generosity.

The text, Paul tells us, God will abundantly pour out his blessing on you, on generous people.

Now, what is blessing?

When Scripture talks about blessing, it's not talking necessarily about a bigger paycheck or a nicer zip code.

That may happen, but that's not what blessing means.

It's talking about living under God's favor, his supernatural power resting on you.

You may or may not have much by the world standards, but you carry something most famous or wealthy people would envy: a depth of joy that isn't tied to circumstances, a peace that money can't touch, and a purpose in life that no title or achievement can give you.

When we live in generous generosity, God says, I'll bless you.

I want to bless you.

And notice, God will meet your every need, not your every greed.

Said in there, uh having all that you need.

This word need, it means sufficiency.

It's the same word used where the apostle Paul says, godliness with contentment.

That's the same word here, is great gain.

It's satisfaction with one's situation in life.

God will meet your every need, not your every greed.

And there is this lie called the prosperity gospel that says if you sow a seed, God will bless you.

And so if you sow a hundred dollars, he'll give you a thousand dollars.

If you sow a thousand dollars, he'll give you ten thousand dollars.

That is not true, and that's not God's blessing.

That is somehow trying to manipulate and get God to do something.

It's called greed.

And then we live as if God owes us something.

God, why didn't you?

God, by the way, owes you nothing and gave You everything that is the gospel?

He does not owe you anything, he's already given you everything.

Generosity is God's middle name.

It's called the cross.

For God so loved the world that he oh see, the gospel is generosity.

The gospel is the God who came for you, the God who died for you, the God who took on your greatest pain, your greatest uh suffering.

He took on death itself that you might have life.

He's already given you everything, and in Christ, every spiritual blessing is yours.

It says, God, I in God's heart is I just want to meet your needs.

I want to meet you today.

And God is the shrewdest investor on the planet, and God will give you more, not to raise your standard of living, but to raise your standard of giving.

So that you can give more.

I was talking with a buddy earlier this week about generosity, and um he said one of the things that helped click for him was there was a question asked, like, how much is enough?

Like, how much is really enough?

You just think about that, like, how much is enough?

Um and our answer honestly is just that person that's in front of us, that family that's in front of us, that couple that's just ahead of you, that that maybe it's the person that's just you know that a step further in their career, how much is enough?

The answer is always a little bit more.

And the problem is when you get a little bit more, how much is enough?

A little bit more.

And then how much is enough?

A little bit more.

And when you realize I am enough because of Christ, and I have enough because of all that he's given me, and so all that I have is his, and he's given me more to be a steward, to be a blessing, to dish it out to those around me.

And I get the joy of partnering with him and what he's doing on planet earth.

The principle reap what we sow, the practice, giving generosities, sowing, it's not losing.

Now, the promise, the power, generosity turns your life into one others are grateful for.

Generosity turns your life into one that other people go, man, I'm so grateful for.

In fact, just think for a second.

Who are you grateful for?

Who you're grateful for is someone who was generous towards you in some way, gave you an opportunity, helped you, gave of their time, energy.

Generosity turns your life into someone others are grateful for.

He says, You'll be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.

And through us, your generosity will result in what?

It's on the screen, it's right behind you.

It's in yellow.

It says thanksgiving if you just missed it.

Your generosity will result in what?

Your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Many thanksgiving, glorifying God.

In fact, another translation right here says the service you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

Because of the service by which you have proved yourself, others will praise God.

Others will praise God.

Generous people reap a harvest of righteousness, impact, and a life others are grateful for.

Generous people reap a harvest.

Like, like what kind of harvest do you want to reap?

Generous people reap a harvest of righteousness, impact, and one that others are grateful for.

Ella, she's never met her compassion child.

In fact, there's been a couple now because they've aged out.

I can guarantee you there is some people on the other side of the world that are grateful for her, grateful for a sixth grader that had stirred in her heart and did said, you know what, I'm gonna start working so that I can bless them.

And maybe one day she'll get to meet them in heaven and hear their story.

Let me ask you, how will you measure your life?

You know, um, we just did the backpack drive.

Those of you who gave backpacks and school supplies, there are kids that show up onto this campus and they're grateful for you.

You know how embarrassing it is to be in high school and be carrying your books or carrying them, you know, in a plastic bag?

Do you know how hard it is to actually excel in school when you don't have the supplies that you need?

When you don't you can't afford binders and all the things, a calculator and these things that you're needing, the teachers are asking.

And there are students here because of your generosity, they're grateful for you.

You know, years ago we started this thing because there's so many kids in need that don't ever have a Christmas and they have some really big needs.

And so we just started, you know, doing blessings and Christmas for kids.

And as a church, we'd do this thing.

We'll do something similar this year as well.

But when we started, I remember the first year we'd actually get these specific requests from kids, and um this one girl really wanted Nike running shoes.

And there's some other things in it, and we wanted to bless her, and we got her these Nike running shoes.

And the thing about being a blessing is you don't always get to hear the story of the blessing, right?

Years later, it was another Christmas Eve, we're just sharing the end result of this generous season of what God did through our church that are grateful for, and this young woman came up to me and she's like, I was one of those kids.

I went to Del Mar High School, and you guys gave me running shoes.

I'm like, you're you.

You have no idea.

Home was so hard.

And those running shoes was just my place where I could go and I could get away and just think, be with God.

This is like seven years later, and she's like, I still have those running shoes.

It was a small thing for us, it was a life-changing thing for her.

Blessed, blessed, blessed, just get to be a blessing.

How fun is that?

Just get a dish out blessing.

And when you give at awakening and you just get to think about we celebrate baptisms, transformed lives.

There are hundreds and hundreds of people whose lives are transformed by the gospels, whose marriage has been saved, who are experiencing hope and purpose, and they're grateful for you.

I mean, just our last baptism.

I wish I could tell like the full God story because it's insane.

Uh, this young woman searched for purpose, went to South America through some existential stuff and to try to find it, called out for Jesus.

He met her, she's on a plane back, hoping to find a Bible-believing church.

That's her prayer, and she sits next to my aunt and uncle flying to California.

Gets connected here.

At awakening, two weeks later, she gets baptized.

She's grateful for you.

This summer I had the joy of getting to be uh go to our food pantry that happens on the first and third Thursday here.

And if you've not done it, I really want to encourage you, come by.

It's humbling, it's powerful.

When you see a line of a hundred plus cars of people in our community, our neighbors that are lining up to get groceries and the level of food and security that's here all around us.

There's one couple.

They're amazing, Gerson and Mildred.

They've been part of Awakening since 2021, and on the in the fall of 2024, they found a special way to live out their faith serving at the food pantry.

When they asked why they served, they answered, it was simple.

God called us to serve our community.

Both Gerson and Mildred worked jobs that allowed them to choose their day off, and they made deliberate choice, setting aside Thursday so they could serve together at the pantry.

Week after week, they give up one of their only two days off to back to pack produce, dairy, and dry goods for their neighbors experiencing food insecurity.

This summer, their daughter Gerald, who is heading to Calberkley, go Bears, join them serving faithfully.

They bring energy, joy, and the love of Jesus to every pantry.

Brian, our local opery coordinator, said it this way: They're some of our most faithful volunteers.

When I see their names on the sign-in sheet, I know the pantry is in good hands.

The service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

Radical generosity is the brand of God's church.

Tertullian, second century North African church father, said it this way.

It's our care of the helpless, our practice of loving kindness that brands us in the eyes of our opponents.

Last week we said grace people, grace people.

When I understand and experience the grace of God, I can't help but just diss it out at grace people.

Generous people, people are grateful for.

So let me ask you, how will you measure your life?

Getting ahead?

It's exhausting.

Grateful for.

Grateful for.

Thank you for this church.

And just ask, as we continue in worship, God, as you've stirred our hearts, would you would you help us?

Would you grow us?

Would you shape us?

Would you show us the things that you you just want to work?

And would you make us a generous people?

Continue to grow us, to be a church that this school, this city, this area is grateful for.

May we make you, Jesus, the center of our lives and the expression of our love.

In Jesus' name.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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