201: Extravagant Generosity | Part 5

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.

Well, good morning, Awakening.

How are we doing on this holiday weekend?

We good?

Woo! Oh, it's good to be with you.

Uh, my name's Ryan.

If you're new, welcome.

We're thrilled to have you join us today.

We're in a series called 201, the profile of a disciple.

If you are new uh or just checking this out, this is a great time to come as you're gonna hear uh more about who we are, what we're about.

Um, and we've just been wrestling with like, what does a disciple look like?

What does it look like for us to be a church that looks more and more like Jesus?

What is the profile, if you will, of a disciple?

And we distilled it down to five things.

First, we talked about uh having a compelling faith that a follower of Jesus has this compelling faith.

It's winsome, it's attractive, uh, and we've experienced a condemning faith, but we're called, and Jesus, he was a compelling person.

So we have compelling faith, life-giving practices, and then intentional relationships.

The truth is the Christian life isn't just difficult to do on your own, it's impossible.

We were made for community and designed for it.

So today we're talking about extravagant generosity.

Here's what I want to do.

I know it's a holiday weekend, we're all ready for some of you are three-day weekend, or you're in uh holiday mode.

Here, would you do this for me?

Would you say extravagant generosity?

But but as if it is the most exciting thing you've ever heard of that you just like want to yell it, share it with me.

All right, you ready?

Uh extravagant generosity.

3, 2, 1.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, have a great Sunday.

We'll see you next week.

Um, no, we want to talk about extravagant uh generosity, uh, and the reason is one of the hallmarks for the early church was this extravagant generosity.

Now, the challenge for us today is we live in one of the most expensive places in the world to live, don't we?

Like, forget about owning a home.

Let's just try renting a one-bedroom apartment around here.

Right?

Inflation, my goodness, the cost of coffee is just astronomical these days, let alone gas.

We're experiencing tech layoffs.

How many waves of tech layoffs, the uncertainty with the economy?

Now listen, in one of the most expensive places to live in the world, how do we break free from a scarcity mindset?

And then begin to live with extravagant generosity.

Scarcity mindset.

I I don't know if I'll have enough, and so I gotta make sure to like hold on and get what's mine to an extravagant generosity where we're living in such a way that our life is a blessing to all those around us.

Now, the first followers of Jesus, they had a view when it came to their possessions, a view when it came to their time.

They had a very clear understanding when it came to every aspect of their life.

They had a core conviction.

And we've said this core conviction as just part of our language over the last 12 years as a church, and said it's not just those first followers, but it's us today too.

And here's what we believe, it's what they believed.

We believe that the church should lead the way in unleashing extravagant generosity to a hurting and broken world.

Why?

Because we have an extravagantly generous God.

We believe that the church, and the church isn't just an institution.

We think about like, yeah, the church should do that.

You go get them.

Like the church is us, it's a people.

Every follower of Jesus, we're a member of the church.

It's all of us individually coming collectively, unleashing our extravagant generosity together.

That's what it looks like.

And the reason why, the motivation why behind all of it, is because we have an extravagantly generous God.

Now, listen how the Apostle Paul said it to the church in Corinth, and the church in Corinth was struggling with this idea of generosity.

In fact, chapter 8 and chapter 9, the Apostle Paul spends two full chapters to help them grow and develop in this.

And he writes this in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 7.

2 Corinthians 8:7

But since you excel in everything, it's like us in the Valley, we try to excel in everything, in faith and speech, and knowledge, in complete earnestness and in love we have kindled in you.

See that you also excel in this grace of giving.

Whoa! Like that's a calling for us to excel in the grace of giving.

And then he gives the reason why.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

The gospel at its core is the extravagant generosity of God towards you, towards me, towards all of humanity.

It says, in light of an extravagantly generous God, in light of a God who held nothing back but gave himself completely, that did whatever it took to be with you, to welcome you back into the family of God, to redeem you.

That means literally buy back.

He's like, to buy you back, I will give my life.

In light of that, church.

Excel in the grace of giving.

Because that's being like your heavenly father.

So, how in the world do you excel in the grace of giving?

In the Silicon Valley.

Right?

What does it mean to be extravagantly generous when you're just trying to afford living here?

What I want to do with our time first is I want to give you just a big picture.

It's a theology of generosity.

And then we're going to take some time of like, okay, if that's a theology of generosity, then what keeps us from being generous?

And often it's myths we believe about generosity.

And then how do we practice this?

What does it practically look like for us today?

Okay, so a theology of generosity.

I want to give you just three big ideas when it comes to a theology of generosity.

The first is simply this God owns it all.

God owns it all.

Psalm 24 says, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

All the people who live in it, it's the Lord's.

Like God owns it all.

He doesn't need your money, by the way.

He's not like, oh my goodness, I really need a little bit more.

No, he owns it all.

He created it.

And your day and your life and my life is a gift.

This moment is a gift.

Your breath is a gift.

And if God owns it all, it changes our perspective on our stuff, our finances, our possessions.

It changes it from an owner to a steward.

You are a steward.

If it's his and it's entrusted to you, you are a steward.

Now think about this with a steward.

A steward is one who has been entrusted with something for a certain amount of time and then will be accountable with how they stewarded it.

Every single person, we are a steward of our time.

We are a steward of our talents.

And we are a steward of our treasure, our resources.

And we are accountable.

God says, this is all mine.

I'm entrusting it to you.

And how are you going to handle what I have given you?

The first for us understanding a theology of generosity is God owns it all.

The second is that God gave it all.

He gave it all.

It's not a God that owns it all and then says, you know what?

And um I'm gonna withhold from you.

We just talked about it, 2 Corinthians 8, right?

He who was rich became poor so that through his poverty you might become rich.

That's the gospel.

John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave.

Romans 8.

He who did not spare his own son, but graciously gave him.

How will he not, along with him, give us all things?

Like God gives it all.

And so then the picture shifts from okay, I'm a steward, not an owner.

I've been entrusted, then I'm indebted, I'm not entitled.

I'm indebted.

Like every God owns it all, He gave it all.

This is grace.

I'm indebted into the grace of God.

And so my response instead of entitled, like, God, you owe me.

Like I deserve X, Y, and Z.

Why didn't you?

God, you gave it all for me.

I'm indebted, so I'm just living from a place of gratitude towards you and all that you've done towards me.

My life is simply gratitude saying thank you to the God who gave it all for me.

God owns it all.

God gave it all.

Now, this third one is one, especially Americans, we struggle with.

God expects our all.

God owns it all, God gave it all.

God expects our all.

Jesus, when he's explaining what it means to be a disciple, he said this.

If anyone come after me, they must what?

Deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.

For the person who wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will save it.

It's the upside-down paradox of the gospel of kingdom living that as long as you keep trying to live for yourself, as long as you keep trying to give for yourself, you're gonna miss out on life itself.

But the minute you give it all and entrust it all to him, all of a sudden life starts knocking at your door and springing up in your life.

God actually expects our all.

The apostle Paul, think about this when he's talking about um sexuality back into the church in Corinth, and he says, You are not your own.

You are bought with a price, therefore honor God with your bodies.

So the perspective is everything versus some things, and we land in the world of our discipleship of some things.

God, you know what?

I'll give you that time on Sunday.

God, I'll give you some of this time over here.

Uh, you know, it's been a busy week, so but I I know I should pray.

I'll give you some of these sort of things.

But I but when it comes to my sexuality, God, I want to hold on to that.

When it comes to my future, uh I want to hold on to that.

When it comes to my finances, I want to hold on to that.

And a theology of generosity, when we understand, is God already owns everything.

He doesn't need it.

You fundamentally and I fundamentally, we're a steward.

He gave it all.

We are indebted by the grace of God, and as a result, we simply bring it back to him and say, How do you want me to use what you've entrusted to me?

And thank you.

Thank you for salvation.

That's a theology of generosity.

And the chances, chances are most of us, or many of us, we we're familiar with some of this.

And yet we struggle, don't we, with generosity.

Even some of the most mature people still struggle with generosity.

America, as wealthy as we are, we struggle with generosity.

You know, on average in America, uh, the average American gives just about 2% of their wealth to charity annually.

The average Christian in America gives 2.5% of their wealth away.

Like we said, we believe the church should unleash extravagant generosity, but we're not even that much different than everybody else.

And did you know this?

During the Great Depression, the average American gave 3.3% of their wealth away.

We're less generous than those who were going in through the Great Depression.

Why do we struggle with this?

I think it's because we buy into really five big myths.

Five big myths when it comes to generosity.

The first one is I need to be wealthy, to be generous.

And none of us feels wealthy, do we?

Who's wealthy?

Always the person ahead of you.

Right?

I mean, if we took wealth in the grand scheme of the um world, every single person is wealthy.

But then we start to compare, I'm like, well, you know, I can't own a home, or I don't have that nice of a home, or I can't drive X, or I can't wear this.

But we believe I need to be wealthy in order to be generous.

Jesus made this incredible observation.

He sits down at the temple across from where they would do the tithes and offering.

Now think about this.

We don't do it like this, but uh there was these big horns, like um, think of like a yeah, a horn.

Uh and it was made out of brass.

And so you would drop your ties into there, and you'd have gold coins, and you just think about how loud that would sound and reverberate around you know the temple, and you'd have these wealthy people bring in their bags and they would drop it and make this ruckus right.

And he's sitting watching this.

And this widow shows up.

She comes and she has two copper coins.

She throws those in there, it doesn't even make a noise.

Nobody noticed.

She was passed by.

And Jesus calls over his disciples and says, Do you see that woman there?

They're like, What do you mean?

She gave out of her poverty, they gave out of their excess.

They gave as a sign to make everybody else think how generous they are, but it cost them nothing.

There was no sacrifice, it didn't hurt, they didn't think about it, they didn't blink about it, but she gave and it cost her so much.

And the truth is, is generosity, it's it's not about the size, but the sacrifice.

In fact, there's college students, you are some of the most generous people because you're giving significantly.

And you're like, it's only it's only a few dollars.

But it makes up so much of a sacrifice.

And there's those that honestly, by the way, if you make$75,000 or more annually, you tend to be less generous than those who make less.

Statistically, and this builds into the second myth.

Oh, wait, let me just at least read the verse for you.

Another one here.

The Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth.

He says, And now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know about the grace that God has given to the Macedonian churches.

They're very poor.

In the midst of their severe trial, their overflowing joy, and their extreme poverty, welled up in rich generosity.

I testify they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability.

You don't need to be wealthy to be generous.

I'll be generous, though, myth number two, when I have more.

I don't have a lot.

When I get more, then I'll give more.

Unfortunately, statistically, that is not true.

What happens is the more you get, statistically, is people become less generous, not more generous.

My buddy, he's a financial planner, and he was confirming the stat.

He said, Yeah, I work with all these individuals and the people of modest income that are on a fixed budget, they're far more generous.

In fact, the people who are uber wealthy, they're not generous at all.

Because it doesn't make enough tax sense for them to be generous.

Because what do I get out of it?

I'll be more generous when I have more.

And the reality is, is if we're not generous with a little, we'll never be generous with a lot.

Jesus would say it this way, Luke 16, 10.

Whoever can be trusted with very little will also be trusted with much.

And whoever's dishonest or unfaithful, that's that stewardship term, by the way.

This is a stewardship term.

You're unfaithful, and we hear dishonest like deceitful.

No, this is like you just haven't been a good steward of what was trusted with you.

Whoever's dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

So if you've not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

It's the principle of the little.

Jesus says it like the little thing in your life feels like the big thing for most of you.

The little thing in the kingdom of God is your finances.

God's like, I own it all.

It's not a big deal for me.

And I can provide it all.

We'll get there in a second.

But he says, those are little things.

I want to be able to entrust you with true riches, spiritual impact, life change.

But you can't even trust me for the little stuff.

Generosity.

When I get more, then I'll give more.

The reality is it starts now.

Third myth is generosity is only about money.

We know it's not.

It's about your time, it's your attention, your words, acts of kindness.

And yet, here's something that financially giving acts like a catalyst in our lives for every area, other area of generosity.

Another myth, generosity requires grand gestures.

Like it's not really extravagantly generous if unless I'm like helping to build an orphanage.

Have my name on that wing of the hospital.

Like those are the extravagantly generous.

And Jesus, in teaching his disciples, he'd say, Don't let your left hand know what your right hand's doing.

Like, give in a way that isn't like grandiose.

And so much of extravagant generosity is the way of life in which we live as stewards.

Living out this gratitude life for all that He's given, indebted, and got everything I have.

And so you just point me in the right direction.

It happens in the little, and generosity happens in the consistent, the habitual.

The fourth fifth and final myth that we buy into, and I think it's probably one of the biggest ones for us, is generosity will leave me with less.

Why do we struggle to be generous?

Because we we believe that it will just leave us with less, don't we?

Like if I give money to you, that's less money.

So I have a couple bucks in my pocket.

I normally don't have cash.

But I had a fantasy football draft this week.

So I have some$10 bills.

I have four of them.

Jeez, rolling.

Right?

But if I give you, here you can.

How many dollar bills do I have?

Three.

So the math adds up, Ryan.

If I'm generous, it leaves me with I only have three.

And then if I give you one.

I'm fine, I'll give you one too.

I just don't care.

No, I'm left with one.

Frankly, that's just barely a coffee and other things nowadays, right?

Isn't that why we struggle with generosity?

Is if I give it, then what am I left with?

I'm gonna be left with less.

And it's the scarcity mindset, like, you know what?

I'm not sure if we're gonna be able to make it.

And if I really give it, what's gonna happen?

Jesus said, and we know this, it's more blessed to give than receive.

Like something happens when you give, and when he gives it away, that activates a blessing of God.

And we got to be careful because there's the health, wealth people that say every time you bless, sow a seed, and God's gonna give you abundantly back a ton of money.

That's not how it works.

But he does bless you and he does move.

Notice what the apostle Paul said in Corinthians again.

Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly.

Whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

That when we give, it's not losing its sowing, it's investing.

It's actually producing something beyond the initial giving of that.

And then he says, here's how we should give.

Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart.

So there's there's thought and there's consideration.

It's not an impulse.

Not reluctantly or under compulsion.

It shouldn't be like, well, I kind of don't really want to do it, I didn't really want to give you the$10, but I feel like it's not that.

And it's not like this whole idea of feeling manipulated.

This is the reason there will be a special offering at the no, there won't be a special offering at the end of this sermon.

Because that would feel manipulative, right?

You're like, oh no, there's no like feeling this manipulative.

And then he says this God loves.

You want to know what one of the things that God loves?

Like, what does God love?

Well, he loves a cheerful giver.

He loves a like, gosh, you know what?

I have four of these, and here's the ten, and here's one, here's one.

Like, that's not and I gotta be a part of someone's life, I gotta help someone.

I the word cheerful is literally hilarious.

I was a part of a church for years that every time they took the offering, the church cheered.

Literally, for years, they don't do it anymore, but for every time it said it's time for the offering.

And if you're new, they're like, this is weird, what's going on?

But it came from this verse of like, God loves a cheerful giver, and we just want to be cheerful.

Like, thank God that we get to be a part of this.

You own it all, you gave it all, and I'm bringing my all to you, and I can't believe I get to be a part of it.

So let's just try, let's just cheer just for now.

We won't, I don't think we'll probably incorporate this all the way, but but let me just say it's time for the offering, and let's just cheer, like you know, like Taylor Swift just stepped onto the stage, or I mean, okay, like Cold Play just dropped a new album, and I'm pretty big fans of them.

So, like uh, anyways, I didn't know that was gonna go so wrong.

Um let me just say time for the offering, and let's cheer.

It's time for the offering.

Like, what would change in our heart if we said, man, this is something that I get to be a part of?

What a privilege.

I get to be involved in what God's doing.

He invites me in.

I'm a steward, indebted, entrusted, and everything I have is his, and whatever you want me to use it, I'll use it.

Then notice what he says.

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.

So, even as you give, I'm gonna fill up your tank, I'm gonna fill up your cup, I'm gonna take care of your needs.

One of the things that I learned early on, we learned, my wife and I learned early on, was that you can't outgive God.

How can you actually trust that He has your very best?

Um story I've told many times, but uh it's where we first learned this.

And it's fun recently it came full circle.

17 years ago, uh we're moving from Georgia back to the Bay Area, San Jose, and we were excited, but we my job no longer had a job, and so I I was um didn't have income.

I was away with uh high school students on a mission to Mexico trip, and uh we were gonna sell one of our cars to be able to provide for moving costs and pay for you know all the the cost of our house and whatnot.

And our income just was steadily going down, not income, but our bank account was steadily going down.

And so I asked one of um the parents in our youth group, his neighbor, they had four teenage kids.

He said, Would you help me sell this car while we're you know while I'm away on the missions trip?

And his kids were on the trip with me.

And he said, Absolutely, and he was trying, working it, and my hope was to sell this car for$5,000.

And and during that time in Mexico, I just sensed like God was asking me, hey Ryan, I think you should give that car.

I want you to give that car to that family.

Okay, but if I give that car, that was how I was planning to pay for our move and cost.

I have two, I mean, two little ones, a baby and a toddler.

How are we gonna do this?

And I talked to Jenny, I said, This is what a sense in, and she said, Absolutely, I think we should.

And I I told uh his name's Dell.

I said, Dale, I you know, I feel like God told me to give you this car.

And it's like, oh, I could never do that.

I said, No, you gotta take that up with God.

It's not me, honestly.

I I argued.

Um we gave him that car, and a couple weeks later, the bank account is almost on zero.

Don't know, like, literally, don't know what's gonna happen, how we're gonna do it.

And I get a knock on the door, and there's a courier, and he drops off uh a letter, and we open up this letter, and it's a guy I met once.

And he said this in the letter, I still remember, it's a short letter.

Hey, heard you're moving, sad to see you go.

Thought you could use some money, uh, moving around money, and in it was a check for$5,000.

Like, like I could tell you story after story of how God's shown up and provided both financially and personally and relationally, and people who just begin to go, you know what?

This is all God's, and when I give, I actually don't end up with less.

But often we don't ever get to be a part of the story because we never trust Him to the point where we need God to show up.

It was really powerful and special two years ago.

Um had a couple in our church, and I've known them for a long time, a young couple, and they uh said, Hey, we need to meet.

It was around Christmas time, and it's like, oh, this is not good.

They're eating well, it's either great.

It's either they're having a baby or they're moving.

It's one of two things.

This one always is what I think.

I'm like, you're like, oh, we really need it's important.

I'm like, okay, maybe you're having a baby or you're moving, and I gotta grieve all over again.

And this couple shows up to our door and they're like, you know, I got a new car.

And I was really praying about what are we to do with the old car?

And he's like, You're I've brought your home, your boys home after basketball, they love the car, and you know, we had three drivers at the time, now we have four drivers.

He's like, I just felt like God wanted us to give you our car.

And now I was on the receiving end of that, and something that we couldn't afford.

And to have a third car, which is such a gift and such a blessing.

Generosity.

The lie the enemy wants is it will leave us with less.

And the reality is, is we cannot outgive God.

So, how do we practice generosity?

Let me give you some practical application here.

Generosity is not an event, it's not a one-time event that we do, it is a habit, it's a lifestyle, it's a muscle that you strengthen, it's a skill that we develop.

Generosity then is developed in the practice of the tithe.

The tithe is an Old Testament concept.

What is it?

It literally means a tenth.

Leviticus 27, 30 says, a tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord.

It is holy to the Lord.

As a church, when we started 12 years ago, we said we're gonna give at least 10% outside the walls of our church annually.

We've done that every single year.

This year we gave 12%, a little over a quarter of a million dollars, outside the walls of our church.

So we do ministry within the walls and we do ministry outside of those things.

We'll never ask people to do something we are not doing.

And you go, well, the Old Testament, it it really talked about a tithe attempt, and it's actually a good benchmark to begin with generosity.

And the New Testament moves from that percentage to proportional giving.

Irenaeus, the church father, said this.

The Jews were constrained to a regular payment of tithes.

Christians who have liberty assigned all their possessions to the Lord, bestowing freely, not the lesser portions, of all their property, since they have the hope of greater things.

God, since you gave it all, it's all yours.

You just show me how you want to use it.

Well, why do we tithe?

This is important.

Tithing trains our heart to trust God.

Like we need something that constantly breaks the tyranny of consumerism, the ongoing demand and the tide of greed that pulls us in the currents of our culture.

We need something that fights against that.

Tithing trains our heart, it puts us in position.

It's that like someone going to the gym to work out that we're just going to trust him.

Jesus would say, Don't store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourself treasures in heaven where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Jesus spoke more than any other subject about money and wealth.

15% of all of his teaching was around this subject.

He spoke more about it than heaven and hell combined.

Why?

Because he understood something about you and me.

That wherever our treasure goes, our heart follows.

That, like our bank account, is one of the most spiritual documents we have.

And until we learn to trust him with our stuff, our possessions, our finances, he doesn't have your heart.

You say it this way: no one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate one or love the other, or you'll be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and money.

Tithing reminds us that we are stewards and releases us from the grip of greed and consumerism.

What is the tithe?

It's literally a tenth.

Why do we do it?

It trains our heart to trust God.

How are we to tithe?

We are to give to God first, not last.

Proverbs 3.9 says, honor the Lord with the first fruits of all your crop.

Then your barns will be filled to overflow and your vats will brim over with new wine.

First fruits, honor God first.

It does not take faith to give to God last or what's left over.

Give to him first.

And often that's how we do it.

I get it.

You're like, well, I'm gonna live and I've got to pay these sort of things, and I gotta, at the end of the month, if there's any left over, then I'll maybe give to God.

Unfortunately, the average American lives on about 110% of their income.

There's not anything left over.

Here's how we do it.

I get paid twice a month, and I have it on the automatic withdrawal.

Right on that payday, I just take 10%.

Now we give to other places, but we give 10% to our church first, and then we give to other places above and beyond that.

And just have it on an automatic withdrawal.

So that the very first thing that happens is that goes straight out.

It's not even a question, it's not a thought, we're not even deliberating about it.

My wife's a real estate agent.

She doesn't get paid on a consistent basis, she gets paid when a house closes.

The very first thing she does, she sits down and writes down on a check 10% of whatever that payment was.

Why?

Tithing trains our heart to trust God.

It builds that muscle on where to give to God first and not last.

And so the reality is for many of us, this is scary.

This is hard.

It's like I'm not sure how to do that.

And what I'm so grateful for is that God actually asks us to test him, to find him trustworthy.

It's the only place in scripture God invites us to test him.

Malachi 3.10, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.

Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will be not room enough to store it.

Jesus says, give and it'll be given to you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured in your lap, for the measure you use, it'll be measured to you.

God wants you to take him up on this, to find that he is the source of life.

He is the source of security, the source of your future, instead of putting it into your stuff.

And he says, test me on this.

And as you test me, I'll show myself trustworthy.

And your notes, you have a little commitment.

No one's gonna see this.

This is just between you and God.

But where are you at?

What's your step that you need to take?

And it says I, and then you fill in your name, Ryan Ingram, choose to take God up on his invitation to trust him to meet all my needs.

God, will you really meet all my needs?

I take the step by committing the first, and the reality is I left that blank because I think some of us 10% just is not realistic at this stage.

Where you go, you know what, I'm gonna the first 4%.

First six percent.

Maybe you are like at six or seven percent, up first ten percent.

In fact, I know of a couple people, as they've gone on in life, here's amazing.

They've decided to reverse tithe.

And they started in their 20s and just added a percentage each year, and they've been able to make some jumps, and now they live off of 10% and they give 90% of what they make away.

And they love it, and they love being a part of it, and like the they're the most joy-filled people on the planet.

What's your percent?

Would you take that step?

And if there's anything in you where, like, oh man, I don't know if I trust Ryan, give somewhere else.

I think awakening is one of the greatest places to leverage and steward what God's doing and invest.

But if there's any sense in there, give somewhere else for your heart's sake, for what God wants to do in you.

I want to invite up my friend Andre.

He's one of my dearest.

Andre and Judy are some of our dearest friends, some of our favorite people on the planet.

And I just want to share his story because we've been friends for a decade or so now and done a lot of life together, and I've gotten to hear his story.

There you go, you gotta turn that on.

Perfect.

And I just wanted, you know, it's one thing to hear from a pastor, and like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uh, what's your story and journey of generosity, and how has that shifted and changed over the years?

And yeah, I mean, all the stuff that you've wrestled with.

Yeah, um, well, first of all, let me just say uh um I'm a I'm a warrior.

Um, I worry.

I um I think my default is probably a sense, uh, a mindset of uh is there gonna be enough uh for the future?

You know, uh when when we got married, we had a young family, um, and and and to this very day I still I still I still worry with that.

Um, you know, Ryan was saying over here, being a cheerful giver.

Um I'm gonna be totally totally honest.

Um a lot of the time I'm giving it is it is not with cheer, it is it is with uh a sense of uh you know um of worry, like am I gonna have enough after doing this?

After you go with those$10 bills, my anxiety levels are were rising over there.

It just uh creates it.

But um I I will say this, I'm maybe not always a cheerful giver when I give, but I I have learned that I'm always gonna be a cheerful giver later, um, after that, when I when I just see the benefit and I see how how trustworthy God is.

So now my mindset is yeah, this is gonna be a little painful now, but experience has taught me that I'm gonna become a cheerful giver because of this particular giving act down the road.

Uh the you know, my um God gave me a great gift in my wife, who is just generous and a giver, and was really uh influenced me and encouraged us as a unit uh to give.

And there may be maybe couples over here today who you you know you you might wrestle with that in your relationship where one of you wants to give everything away and the other one's a worrier about the future and financial planning.

Um but I I would say to those couples, um, you know, be led by the generous one, because uh my my my story is that that's just been such a blessing to me.

And you know, we've since when we got married, we we started giving at a church, and I'll be totally honest again, we weren't giving 10%, but we started giving a little bit.

And um over time, I I just learned uh what Ryan pointed out on over there, which is trust, the T.

Um we just learned that as as we as we gave more, uh we could we could trust God that we would have enough for whatever we needed.

Um and uh you know my testimony also is that God was just uh you know faithful in actually giving us more.

The more we gave, you mentioned you can't outgive God, the more the more we gave, the more we had to give.

And so it was just this really positive, uh, you know, just just uh a feedback loop that we we we experienced uh you know over the years.

Yeah.

No, thank you.

What was maybe a shift for you in generosity?

You know, how did your perspective you started giving, how did that evolve and change for you?

Yeah, as I say, I think initially it maybe started out of as a duty, um, but I I I think uh just the act of giving itself actually brought home to me that uh you mentioned stewardship, but this stuff is really not ours.

It's uh when I when I think of generosity, I almost think of an open hand that is holding things very lightly and that actually gives away things uh you know freely.

And I think the it's it's interesting, the act of giving actually in and of itself evolved my my mindset.

Um it built trust and uh I just got to experience the joy in in giving, yeah.

That's amazing.

And then just like we're we're all we're all human, we're all struggling in the same boat.

Uh someone that wants to take that step of like, you know what, I don't know what percentage or something, but I want to begin to do that.

What advice would you give to somebody?

Just yeah, uh I would say um number one, uh I I strongly believe in giving to the local church.

Um and over there, wait, I'd basically go back to the T's, uh, you know, which might be um you know, test, uh tithe, and trust.

And I think those things will so what I'd encourage anyone to do uh is really you know the the pledge that you've got over here, test it.

Uh you know, begin to begin to give, and um you will you will see that your trust will uh you know grow as a result of that.

And you know, we that's talking about giving to the church, but also just think a generous mindset more generally.

Uh be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

My my wife again hears a lot more from the Holy Spirit than I do.

Um, but you know, when you hear that prompting, react to it.

Uh we were we were in New York two weeks ago and we were in a coffee shop and we walked out and my my wife just said, I I just you know feel prompted that we should give all the baristers over there, you know, a certain amount.

Uh, you know, I can't remember what it was,$50,$100.

And I was like, what why no?

That's crazy.

Um and and uh but then you know I thought about it and we left, and then I was like, no, no, let's go back.

She's normally right, and we did it.

And on our trip in New York, I think that money that we spent at that coffee shop doing that was probably the spend that I derived the most joy and happiness from.

They were so excited, we got an email afterwards thanking us.

It is it is just a wonderful thing to do.

So I'd say another thing, you know, in in addition to just taking steps and testing and trusting is also just to be open to prompts from the Holy Spirit and listen to that.

Oh, amazing.

Thank you, Andre.

Can we thank Andre so much?

Appreciate that.

I'm gonna invite the band on up and just I want you to take a moment.

Where has God been speaking to you?

And what specifically does He want you to do with that?

What trust?

Clean it.

I'm gonna invite these guys.

Why don't you stand on up and let me pray for you?

Jesus, we were reminded that you already own it all.

We're grateful that we come to an extravagantly generous God.

And would you help us respond and act more and more as your kids, trusting you have us every step of the way.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded.

And hey, we'd love to connect with you.

Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash card.