12+1 Core Values: Generosity Branded | Jason Martin

You're listening to a message to go from X Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Generosity branded. So before I go any further, when you

hear the word generosity, do you feel happy? Or do

you suddenly feel like, man, why is he talking about generosity?

How many of you all feel happy when you hear

the word generosity? How many of you all are like,

Like suddenly you cringe or you're like, oh man, he's

going to talk about money. If you're brave, you'll put

up your hand. Okay? But generosity, okay? Generosity, if I

go to the next slide. Generosity. Okay, it is taken

from this scripture. Okay? We're talking about generosity. Okay? And

these values are all taken from the first church. The

first church was in the book of Acts, chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And that's why these 12 plus 1 values are all

from the book of Acts. So when we covered the

12 values, like what I said, why is there a

plus 1? So Pastor Kenneth, who is our senior minister,

God downloaded it to him, the 12 values. And then Subsequently,

about one to two years after the 12 values were

sort of finalized, God spoke to him and said that, hey,

there needs to be one more value, you know. And

one of that value is a value that is very

apparent in the first church. And that value is generosity.

So the key text here is this, Acts 2, 44

to 45. Now all who believed were together and had

all things in common and sold their possessions and goods

and divide them among all as anyone had need. So

you can see, anyone who had need, they come to

the church, their needs were met because everyone pulled together

and then helped those who were in need. Okay? So

that is our key text for today. If I go

to the next slide, We love generosity when we are

the ones receiving it. Don't you love generosity when you

are the ones receiving it? How many of y'all love

that when people are generous to you? I also would

love it if people are generous to me. Wow, when

they are generous, suddenly you feel mind-blown. Wow, I didn't

expect it. I didn't expect it. Why are you doing

this for me? What's the catch? You know, in this

time and age, if someone is generous to you, you're asking, hey,

no free lunch. No free lunch, right? What do you

want from me? You know, generosity is so rare nowadays

that every time when we mention when someone is being

generous to us, we always think that there is a

ulterior motive. They want something from me. You know, there

is nothing that is given for free. Right? And that is,

but if you see, if we receive something that is,

can you think of a time when someone was very

generous to you recently? How long ago was it? It's quite,

it might be recent, it might be long ago. Okay?

But in the book of Acts, they were generous every day.

So if I ask this question to the same church

back in the day, when was someone generous to you?

They will just say yesterday. Or they might just say today.

Because that church lived generosity. Everything that they did was

from a spirit of We are noticeably slower to love

it when it is ours to give. When somebody comes

to you and says, hey, be generous. Why don't you give? Suddenly,

it's a bit more difficult. We love if people give

it to us, but it's tougher when we have ones

that need to be generous. Right? So, next slide. So

what is generosity? I just wanted to give us a

common definition that we can work with. What is generosity?

Giving what is yours, not only money. It's time, money,

attention for someone else's good. No strings attached. That is

what generosity is. Some of us might have a lot

more time. Some of us might have more money. Some

of us might have influence. You know, you have influence,

that's why you give attention and you help people. And

you do it because you see the need. And it's not,

what can I get from this person? It is not

a contract, but it is a gift. A lot of times,

we think that, okay, I will do this because what

can I get from this person? But generosity is like

a gift. When you go to someone's birthday, okay, now

it may not be a very good example, but long

time ago, when you go for somebody's birthday party, you

go and give them a gift. Right now, my kids

go to a birthday party, they give them a gift,

they ask, where's the party pack? Right? So it's like

no longer generous also.

You know?

Nowadays, right, it's like, okay, I give this thing, hey,

where's my party pack? So more and more, people are

learning less and less to be generous. There is kind

of a thing that's saying that, hey, if I give something,

I need something back. But the book of Acts, the

first church, they talked about generosity. And they gave their time,

their money, their attention for someone else's good. And that's

why they were able to meet all the needs.

Okay?

So, I wanted us to just look through a few points, right?

Why is generosity so important? You know, is generosity biblical?

We believe in the Bible. We believe that the Bible

is the Word of God. So, I want to ask

you a question. Is generosity biblical? How many of you

all say yes?

Yes.

Okay, of course it's biblical because everything that we want

to teach has to be aligned with the Word of God.

And God is a generous God. So next slide. God

so loved the world that He gave. He gave what?

His one and only begotten Son. So God will not

expect us to do things that He does not do.

And God is the ultimate picture of generosity. Because He

gave Jesus so that we may have eternal life. Correct?

He gave. So that is how. Because He gave, you know,

we celebrated communion earlier. So for those who maybe knew

what is communion, where we partook of the bread and

the cup, right? That is celebrating. what Jesus has done

for us on the cross, how He had died for us,

and more importantly, rose again, so that our sins are

washed away and that we can have eternal life with

Him in heaven one day. And we can only have

eternal life in heaven because He gave His Son. That

someone who was perfect paid the price for our sins

so that we didn't have to So generosity is biblical.

And it is the core foundation of what we believe in.

So in other words, next slide. Generosity is love in action.

Can you say, I love someone and don't give? Okay,

how many of y'all have... For those of us who

are married, right? You say you love your spouse or

when you're dating, you will give. You know, there's five

love languages. May not be all gifts, but there are

five different ways that we give or show love. And

when you say that you love someone, you will willingly give, right?

Like for example, you can't say that you can give

without loving, but you can't love without giving. Is that correct?

When you love, you will automatically give. You know, like recently,

I went to... I went for a work trip to Bangkok.

Then coming back, I was thinking whether I get a

few souvenirs, you know, for the kids and for Jess.

So I went there, then I saw this, Jerome likes

one of these anime characters. I actually lugged back a

pillow in my suitcase for him. I'm like, Then I

looked at him, I'm like, why am I doing this?

I mean, I will only do it for him, you know,

because I love him and that's why I will do it.

And that's the same thing. Parents, that's what you'll do.

Same as you do for your kids, especially when it

comes to Christmas, right? Right now, when it comes to Christmas, right?

I don't really care what I get. but I'm more

keen to see how my kids respond to what I

give them. Right? You would rather like, because they will

give me probably what? A socks? Or a tie? You know,

it'd be something along those lines. But you as a parent,

you have the ability and you want to produce a

smile on their face. Or you want them to have

like a wow factor. So you go and you give

and you wrap it up and then you are waiting

in anticipation to see how they respond. And the best

gift you can get is that they respond well. Because

if they are happy, then you will be happy. So

that's why generosity is love in action. So if I

tie that together, the first church was all about love.

The first church was all about love, okay? So there

are a few points. So I wanted to start off,

that was just the introduction, okay? I wanted to start off,

don't worry, this won't take very long, but I put

it in such a way that it will help us

unpack it layer by layer. So I said the first

church was all about love, right? So I want to

start us off with a question. Next slide. How did

the first church become generous overnight? How did the first

church become generous overnight? What do I mean by overnight?

Do you know in Acts chapter 2, I won't read

Acts 2 · chapter mention

the whole chapter, but I will give you a brief summary.

The whole Acts chapter 2, it started with the Holy

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Spirit falling upon the disciples, the 180 in the upper room,

and then they started speaking in tongues. After that, Peter

came out and started preaching to the crowd. He started

preaching to the crowd. It was the first sermon he

ever preached. And after he preached, 3,000 people gave their

life to Jesus.

Right?

And after that, After that, that brings me back to

the key text. Can you go back to slide 2?

Slide 2. Okay, yeah. Back. Okay. So after 3,000 were saved,

this is towards the end of Acts 2. Now all

who were believed were together and had all things in common...

and sold their possessions and goods and divide them among all,

as anyone had need. So that is why I'm asking,

how did it come that before this, they didn't have

a culture of meeting other people's needs? But overnight, after

they heard Peter and they started believing in Jesus, How

did you automatically suddenly become a very generous church? Do

you think it's easy to automatically flip a switch and

they became generous? So think about it. Because if not,

if they were like this from the start, there will

be nobody in need and the Bible wouldn't have called

it out as, wow, this is abnormal. Because suddenly everyone's

need was taken care of. So there were actually four

or five ways, four or five steps that brought these

people from being selfish to suddenly very generous overnight. It

seems overnight. So can I go back to slide eight? Yeah. Yeah. Next.

So if you look at it, right? Just now I

mentioned when the Holy Spirit came down and fell upon

the disciples, they all started speaking in tongues. So when

the Spirit comes and falls upon us, all of us

have the Holy Spirit. If you have accepted Jesus Christ

as your personal Lord and Savior, then you have the

Holy Spirit living in you. So that's very important. That

means right now, if we do not have the Holy Spirit,

our flesh is telling us what to do. And you

know that the flesh is all about us. What's in

it for me? But when the Holy Spirit came and

sat upon them, that was the first part. And when

the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them, then

Peter started preaching. And you know, Peter's sermon had no jokes.

He was like, you guys are sinners. You know, you

went and killed Jesus. You were like giving it to them.

If you read, it was really a very firm, very

strong preaching. And it was the first time he preached.

And when he said that, the people got cut to

the heart, which is point three. So they learned about

Jesus and then they realized that why Jesus had to

die and they were cut to the heart because they

knew that, wow, what have I done? I am a

sinner and God has saved me. And because of that,

they said, wow, I need Jesus. I'm a sinner. I

need Him. Only He can save me. And once they

have done that, Immediately, 3,000 were baptized. So baptized is

saying that I publicly declare that Jesus is God. That

is baptism. After that, they immediately became generous. Did Peter

tell them to be generous?

No.

Did they hear all the sermons about how being generous

is what God wants us to do? No. All that

happened was the Holy Spirit fell upon them, convicted their

hearts and said that, hey, I need Jesus. Once they

accepted Jesus, they automatically became generous. So I pause right now, right?

How many of us are Christians? and believe that Jesus,

have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? Yes.

How many of us are as generous as the book

of Acts? Okay, why I'm asking this is because while

I was preparing this, I had to ask myself the

same question. Am I just a Christian by name, or

has the Holy Spirit full control of my life? that

it wants me to live, that it automatically, it automatically

leads me to live a generous life. Okay? So next slide.

This is just a breakthrough again. So the Holy Spirit

had come. So not a good mood, you know. When

the Holy Spirit come, right, it's not like, wow, I

got goosebumps. I had such an emotional, I was like crying.

You know, those are all the results. But it's not

about feeling. Because, you know, like I was watching some movies.

Some people go Michael Jackson concert also cry one. So

it's not, emotions has nothing to do with it. This

is about the divine power of the Holy Spirit. When

the Holy Spirit comes, it changes lives. When fire touches something,

it never remains the same. If a paper touches fire,

what happens? to the paper? It shrills. If gold is

refined by fire, all the impurity is removed. That is

the power of the Holy Spirit. So when the power

of the Holy Spirit touches us, it needs to change us.

If not, we are either distancing ourselves, Or we are

probably not being honest with accepting Jesus. So they were

confronted with who Jesus really is and they were convicted,

not guilted. It's not about guilty. The Holy Spirit is

not here to make us guilty. The Holy Spirit is

here to convict us. So convict us is like, okay,

what's next? Guilty is you keep on looking back in

the past and you cannot move forward. There's so much

regret and stuff like that. But when you're convicted, it's like, okay,

I know what I've done may not be the best.

How do I move forward? Convicted.

Okay?

So after that, right, 3,000 strangers suddenly all became the

first church. They became like a family. And when they

are a family, right, that is when they will help

each other out. You will help your family in time

of need. And that's what the first church did. So

the fear of God was still active and the encounter

had not faded. That's the first church. Okay? So, next slide.

So this is key. Now when they heard this, they

were cut to the heart and said to Peter and

the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall

we do? When we are convicted, they will ask, what's next?

What should we do? And because of that, they say,

Peter told them, get baptized. Peter didn't tell them to

be generous. You see? Again, nobody, in none of the scriptures,

Peter told them to be generous. Just told them to

get baptized and accept Jesus. And that's what they did.

So generosity is actually the fruit of accepting Jesus Christ

as your personal Lord and Savior. It automatically turns on.

It is not something that you have to work on it.

For example, an apple tree. You plant an apple tree,

you plant an apple seed, you cannot, no matter how

much you do, you can't force the apple tree to

produce an apple. You can't force it. It will just

automatically grow and then produce the apple. Same thing. Generosity

is one of the fruit. When you accept Jesus Christ,

and the Holy Spirit lives in you, generosity is a by-product.

It's a fruit. Next, the first scripture, the first church

knew less scripture than we do and gave more than

most of us ever have. Do you know that the

first church didn't have the New Testament? Right? Because it

wasn't even written yet. The first church didn't have the

New Testament. They only had the Old Testament. So it's

not about what they read in the Bible. It's not

about how many sermons they've heard. It's not about watching

all those missions videos that make you cry. It's not

about all that. But purely, they had unadulterated love for Jesus.

And because when Jesus loves us, He gave, when we

love Jesus, we give. It's the same thing. So that's

why sometimes we say that, hey, we have to teach

about generosity. I'm like, now I think about it, you

can't teach generosity. You either have it or you don't.

And I can't force you to be generous. Only God

can convict our hearts. and cause us to... If we

love God and love His people, then automatically that's a fruit.

Okay?

So next slide, like what I mentioned, for God so

loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Okay?

So next, I want to go to the second part.

So the first part was, okay, Generosity. How do we

become generous? It's not about what we do, but it's

when we accept the Holy Spirit, it's a fruit of

it automatically. Second one is give meaningfully. Okay? Give meaningfully.

So there is a church... This church in the New Testament,

which Paul was talking about, it was the church in Macedonia.

So this church, a bit of background, Macedonia is like

a state, for example. Macedonia is a state. Inside this state,

there are a few churches that were planted. And Paul

was very, very impressed with these churches. And you know

it's very difficult to impress Paul. You know, Paul is

like a no-nonsense kind of guy. But the fact that

Paul can be impressed with these three churches speaks a

lot about what these three churches did. So let's look

at it, okay? Yeah, good. Next slide. So the Macedonian

churches gave out of deep poverty and had an abundance

of joy. Paul never called it reasonable giving. So Macedonia

was a state. I give you the, let's go to

the next slide. I give you the three churches. You know,

the church of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. So Philippi is,

that's where you get the book of Philippians. Okay, in

the Bible, there's a book of Philippians. In the Bible,

there's a book of the Thessalonians. And Berea is one

of the churches in Macedonia as well. So the church

of Philippi was when Paul and Silas was beaten and

thrown into prison. That was where it happened. And the Thessalonians,

when they accepted Jesus, they were also persecuted. Same as

Berea as well. So all these people, all these Christians, right?

When they accepted Jesus, they were persecuted. They were persecuted,

they were beaten for their faith. But still, they gave

in such a way that Paul was impressed. You know?

What did Paul say? Next. In great trial of affliction,

the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded

in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness

that according to your ability, yes, and beyond their ability,

they were freely willing. So these people were not rich.

These people were not comfortable. But he says, Paul says,

I bear witness. I bear witness, that means I, before

God and before man, I will tell you, these people,

they gave beyond, their ability. They gave above and beyond.

And that, these churches, right, just followed from the book

of Acts, chapter 2. That means they had the same

Acts 2 · chapter mention

spirit from the first church. That no matter what was

going through, I will still be generous. Because God gave me,

so I will bless. So, And how generous were they? Okay,

if I go to slide 18, then next slide, one more, next. Okay,

so again, Paul says this, imploring us with much urgency

that we will receive the gift and the fellowship of

the ministering to the saints. You know how generous they were?

Paul looked at them and said that, hey, y'all don't

have enough. Okay, you shouldn't give. You know what these

churches do? These churches, Implored. That means forced Paul to

take what they were giving. That was how generous they were. Say,

I don't care. We have enough. God has provided for us.

They were actually telling Paul, please take us. We want

to be a blessing. We want to bless you. And

that was what these churches did. That's why Paul was

so impressed by these churches. And how can they come

to this place where they were willing to give so much?

This is verse 4, right? Let's see verse 5. Next.

They first gave themselves to the Lord and then to

us by the will of God. So they only could

be generous because they first gave themselves to God. That

means they surrendered less of themselves Not about what my

will be done, but God, your will be done. And

after that, that opened up their hands to allow them

to be generous to the rest. Okay? And if you

look at this, right, there were many churches during that time.

But why did these three churches impress? Go to the

next slide. Following. Next one. No church shared with me

concerning giving and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica,

you sent aid once and again for my necessities. So

although Paul planted many churches, not all were generous. That's

why if you look at the New Testament, right? Paul

wrote many letters to different churches. Some churches he commended,

some churches he gave them a warning. But you can

see the Thessalonian churches and the Macedonian churches were the

only churches that constantly gave, although they were persecuted. And

it's because they first gave themselves to God, then they

can give themselves to men. Okay? All right. So now

is the third point. Don't worry, I'm drawing towards an end.

So generosity is powerful. Have you experienced this? When somebody

has been generous to you, how has your attitude towards

that person changed? How has your attitude, when someone has

been generous to you, how has your perception or attitude

towards the person who was generous to you, change. It automatically,

you are more responsive. You will go above and beyond

for this person because you know this person cares for you.

This person helped you and didn't expect anything in return.

And that's why generosity is so powerful. So how did

the first church, that was actually one of the secrets

of the growth of the first church. So generosity, next slide.

It's a universal language that needs no translation. When you

go to any country in the world and you see

someone in need and you offer up, whatever you have,

to be able to help that person. You don't need

Google Translate. You don't need people to, hey, what is

this guy trying to do? That is how powerful generosity is.

It's a universal language that needs no translation. Immediately, people

will open up their hearts. Because they know that, hey,

this guy... Sometimes it's like a rare... It's a rare...

That's why I say finding a person who is generous

now is very rare. And that's quite surprising. Because in...

You know how many percent of the first church was generous?

Probably close to 100%. How many percent of the church,

current church, is generous? That's a different question. Right? Because...

In the first church, if you say that you are

a Christian, Christian equals generous. Generosity is love in action.

So if you find a Christian who is not generous,

that means essentially the person is not Christian. Because God

is love, generosity is love in action, and if we

do not have love in action, then do we really

believe in Jesus? I know it sounds a bit serious,

but that's how I'm processing this as well. Because I

also have to check myself. Hey, am I generous? Am

I giving of my... You know, to be very honest,

when I was preparing this, I was like, like I

shared before, to prepare sermons like this, it takes a

lot of time. Takes time, takes a lot of effort.

And then sometimes I'll be like, why do I need

to do this? You know? And then I'll be like,

I wanted to just relax, you know, after a long week,

and then suddenly I have to prepare for this sermon,

stuff like that. But then suddenly I was preparing about generosity,

and it's talking about giving of your time. So immediately

it convicts me, right? Hey, I have to give out

of my time because God first gave to me. And

I want to live it out by giving everything that

I have and expect nothing in return. Why do I

sometimes complain? Because I feel that, hey, there's nothing in

it for me. But that is what the church says,

the Bible says, do you expect nothing in return? And that's,

so I have to do this from a place of love.

Love in action. Okay? So, the first church, or the

first church, not even the first church, the early Christians,

they were so famous in regards to their generosity that

if you look through the history books, even the non-Christians

wrote about how generous the Christians were. So I'll show

you a few examples. Next. So this... is one of

the letters that was written to a non-Christian. They are poor,

yet they make many rich. They are in need of everything,

yet they abound in everything. They love everyone, and by

everyone they are persecuted. These people, right, this is not

from the Bible. This is written from a non-Christian to

another non-Christian. It's one of the things. And you can see, right?

They are poor, yet they make many rich. When someone

is generous to you, you suddenly feel rich. Right? And

that's what they did. They are in need of everything,

yet they abound in everything. Although they are in need,

they will still always step up. And they love everyone.

And by everyone, they are persecuted. So they loved everyone,

irregardless of how everyone treated them. And that is generous.

Next slide. So this, there was a plague in the

2nd and 3rd century. There was a plague. And you know,

not like modern medicine nowadays. So like, for example, the COVID-19,

the closest one we had, COVID-19, right? So just imagine

this COVID-19. I try and bring it into peril. So

they had a plague there. And the plague, if whoever

got the plague, immediately it was a death sentence. And

the plague was very infectious. And what happened was, anybody

that caught the plague, right, they were thrown out of

their house and left to die. That means family members

will throw people out of their house. Hey, you got

a plague? I throw you out of the house because

I don't want to die. You're going to die. I

can't help you. And they will abandon, whether it's children,

whether it's adults, whoever it was. It was split that.

But what did the Christians do? So the Christians, they

actually went and collected all these people who were thrown out.

And they nursed them And they took care of them,

even though many of them, by doing so, they paid

the price because they got infected. by the plague and

they also died. But that was what the first Christians did.

And in the history books, right, it says here, right,

this was one of the reasons why the plague was

slowly contained. and why the lethal amount of deaths, right,

was actually reduced. Because the Christians stepped in and they

were generous with their lives to help others. Okay? Next.

So one behavior, they did not abandon the sick. So

like what I mentioned, right, this alone, improved the survival rates.

That means, right, the statistics in history turned because of

the generosity of the early church. That's how powerful the

generosity was. And last one is this. So this story

is even funnier. So there's an Emperor Julian story. So

there's an Emperor Julian. So this guy in the 4th century.

So this Emperor Julian was not a Christian. And he

was there, he wanted to promote pagan religion again. So

he wanted to make all the people turn back to

pagan religions and to turn away from Christianity. But he

found that impossible. He found that impossible because he says here,

it is disgraceful that the impious Galileans support not only

their own poor but ours as well. And all men

see that our people lack aid from us. So the

own people that were trying to persecute the Galileans or

the Christians, the Christians still help them anyway. So then

everyone was like, like that, why do I need to

go back to my pagan religion? Because what Christianity is

offering is much better. So he tried to do that

and at the end, they failed. Because generosity speaks louder

than any influence of authorities. Okay? Alright. So now, as

I draw towards the close, probably I'll go to the

last point. Next slide. Next one. So what does that

mean to us? Like what I mentioned, as I was

preparing this, I had to check my heart also. Am

I a Christian? Because if I'm a Christian, then one

of the fruits that I should be is that generosity

comes automatically to me. And again, right, it's not about

sometimes we get stuck in like, hey, does that mean

I have to give up everything and stuff like that? No.

It's just about doing what God wants you to do.

That's what it is. And to love God and love people.

So this is the year of we are celebrating, the

theme of this year is revival in our church, right?

And if you want to see revival, one of the

key things about revival is generosity. Because people have fully

accepted Jesus and fully living as how He wants us

to live. So next slide. You see, if we are

living a revived life, if we are living a revived life,

and God is within us, and we are following what

the Holy Spirit wants to, we will be overflowing with joy.

Because you know, God is my provider. God, you are

so good. God, your promises are yes and amen. Everything

that you, every promise in the Bible is real. to you,

and you believe it. And because of that, you can

openly open your hand because whatever God blesses you, you

will immediately use it to bless others as well, as

how He wants you to. But on the opposite side,

the opposite of spirit is flesh. And when we are

operating with the flesh, we are talking about self-preservations. You know,

like I mentioned, right? COVID-19. Immediately, right? When it struck,

very hard to get bread. Right? You go to speed mart,

very hard to get bread. Very hard to get eggs.

And some people had to throw away loaves and loaves

of bread. Why? Because they were hoarding. You know, in

the US, it's like toilet paper. Like, suddenly you get diarrhea.

Or what? I mean, it's like... Why? Because that is self-preservation.

You have to look out for yourself instead of allowing

God to look out for you. Revival is God, you

are God, I am not. But the opposite side is self-preservation. God,

I don't trust you. I have to take care of myself.

And when you don't trust God and you say you

have to take care of yourself, that's when your fist

becomes tighter and tighter. and you will be very hard

to let go. Stingy and closed hands. So there was

this story, right? This, the father took the son to

McDonald's drive-thru. So brought, went through, bought the burger and

fries for the kid. Okay, so after went, then the,

they were driving, then the dad took his, took, went,

went and took one fry from the son and ate up.

son was like dad that's my fries you are not

allowed to touch it and the father was like like

he's like bro all of this is my fries all

of it is my fries i can buy the whole

mcdonald's or everything is mine and you are just telling

me about this one fry you're being so this thing

you know And he was even going through his mind,

he was saying, if only you knew I could buy

every single fry and you have fries coming out from

your nose and ears. If only you trust me. And

sometimes that's us as well. Because we forget that God

is the one that gave us. And when he wants

us to be a blessing to others, we tighten our fists.

And when we tighten our fist, he suddenly says that, hey,

I cannot trust this guy with more. So I can't

give him more. You know, and then you just start.

Then after that, all your testimony stop. Because it's less

of God and more about me. You know, Rick Warren,

Pastor Rick Warren, So he wrote the Purpose Driven Life.

Purpose Driven Life. This Purpose Driven Life is one of

the most popular non-fiction books ever sold in the world.

So this, one day he was being interviewed by a reporter.

And because it was one of the most popular non-fiction

books ever written, he made a lot of money. He

made a lot of money. He can basically buy an island,

a small island, that kind of thing. So the reporter

asked him, Rick, why do you think God chose you

to write this book? And why not somebody else? And

Rick Warren says, he just says this, I think God

chose me to write this book because he knows he

can trust me with the money that it will produce.

Because the story of Rick Warren is, he and his wife,

I will cut short right now, right? Out, most of

us give 10% of our tithes. He and the wife,

they give 91%. And they live on the 9%. So

every year they were married, they increased by 1%, 1%, 1%.

And when he made the money from the book, right,

all the proceeds went to furthering the gospel. He still

drives his 15-year-old car. He still wears his clothes and

stuff like that. It's like from Walmart. And for him,

everything that God blessed him with, he uses it to

bless others. Does it mean he was in lack? No.

Because he has so much joy and fulfillment. Like a

parent seeing the joy and fulfillment in their child, he

is living a fulfilled life. And he is living a

purpose-driven life. So that is how we should see ourselves

as well. Are we living for God or not? So

could I get the band up? Next slide. The second

last slide. Next. So it says here, Seek first the

kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things

shall be added to you. So if we put God first,

He will take care of our needs. He won't take

care of our greed. He will take care of our needs.

And we put our faith and trust in Him. And

last but not least, Matthew 6 verse 21. The last slide.

Matthew 6:21

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So that's church this morning, even as I just draw

towards the close. Why was the church, first church, so effective?

It's because they had love in action. They didn't just

preach the word. They lived it up. They gave, although

they got nothing in return. They gave because God first

gave to them. They were convicted, And then they went

out to preach the word. Like the quote from Francis Assisi, right?

Preach the gospel. If necessary, use words. Their actions help

spread the good news further than any eloquent preacher can do.

So church, this morning, Let the Holy Spirit convict our

hearts because that's how it started in the book of Acts.

The Holy Spirit convicts our hearts. And let's check our

hearts to see, are we tight-fisted? Or have we managed

to loosen our fists and say, God, I surrender to you.

You take over. Can God trust us with what he

has given to us so that we can be a

blessing to others?

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.