12+1 Core Values: Generosity Branded | Eld Terence Atkinson

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

We hope this message will light up your day.

Today, we are going to be talking about, we're going

to be learning about the last point on the core

values of X Church 12 plus 1. Now, you may say, yeah,

our core values are actually based on what we find

in the book of X. And you know that Acts

Church basically was founded on the church of Acts or

the model of the church of Acts. And we want

to look at this core value and learn from it

because it will change our lives. It will change our lives.

So I'm going to be doing this perhaps in two parts.

One is I'm going to give you why we believe

it's so important. And then I'm going to go into

some scripture that's going to back it up and give

you an example of of all the things that I'm saying. Okay,

so let's move on. Now, Acts 2, 44 to 45 says,

Now all who believed, all who believed were together and

had all things in common and sold their possessions and

goods and divided them among all as anyone had need.

You know, this scripture, when I was young, I always thought, wow,

you become a Christian, you have to sell everything. You

cannot own anything. You got to sell and give to everybody.

And you have nothing. That's what I thought. And then,

when you actually look at what scripture is saying, scripture

is saying this, all who believed, are we all who believe? Yes,

we are. So what are the things we are together here?

What are the things that we hold in common? Do

you know that Scripture is explained when you go into

the original language? And when it says they had all

things in common, it means this. They cared for one another.

It means that if one was sad, they would come

around and comfort the person. If somebody was moving house,

the church would come together and help them move house.

If they had a good time and they were having

a party because somebody was getting married, they would all

be there helping to make the food and enjoy the function.

They held all things in common. You see, they held

all things. We use the word things, English uses the

word things, but actually it's talking about their spirit, their emotions,

their love for one another, their care for one another.

If somebody was sick, let's say the mother was sick,

no one to cook food, the neighbours would come and

bring food and make sure the little ones had food.

You see, what were they doing? They were caring for

their community. They were caring for one another. They were

holding all things in common. Now, We come to the

part where they were selling their things. They sold their

possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone

had need. You see, it means this. It means that,

let's say, I needed money to maybe look after somebody

who was ill, all right? And let's say, I didn't

have enough money. I've already run out of resources. Some

of the church people would look and say, hey, they

have need. I don't need this chair in my house.

Or I tell you what, I'll sell this chair in

my house. I'll take the money and I'll give it

to them to help them. Did he sell everything? No,

one chair. I can do without a chair so that

Someone can look after somebody who's not well. You get

what I'm saying? So, when they sold what they had,

they sold what they had as somebody had need. Did

it say they sold everything? No. I always thought, is

the word everything there? Sold everything. It didn't say sell everything.

Of course, if you read a little bit further in

Acts chapter 5, you get these two jokers. They called

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Ananias and Sapphira. How many of you know that story,

that part of the story? These two jokers probably were

like me. They thought sell everything. But they didn't sell everything.

They sold some of the things and then they said

they sold everything. So people will look up to them

and say, wow, you're so good, huh? You're so nice, huh?

Peter said, drop dead. Don't lie. You see, they didn't

need to say that. They said, hey, I sold some

of my stuff. Here you have. I even kept some

of the money myself. It's okay. Because that would have

been the truth. So, here we're talking about a kind

of generosity that helps. So, the 12th core value that

we are discussing today is generosity branded. Acts wants to

be known Acts Church wants to be known as a

generous church. We want to be known for generosity. And

the fact of the matter is, actually, Acts is a

very generous church. We give a lot to missions. We

only talk about it once a year. When we have

missions conference and we say, oh, we give this, we

give this. Other than that, we just go about helping people.

Isn't that wonderful? To be like that. And so this

is one of the core values that we find very important.

So you know, God is generous. He gave first. He

gave fully. He gave everything. He gave the best. He

gave Jesus. So who invented generosity? God. We are only

learning from Him. We're only getting the experience from him.

So we inherited. So everything, you go everywhere in the

early church, that spirit followed. They were generous. Open hands,

open homes, open hearts. Everybody, you look in the book

of Acts, you find they were generous. So we want

to learn from you. If somebody wants, if you want

to be known for something, let somebody, hey, that guy,

he's a very generous person. Every Sunday, every Sunday, when

we are driving to church, we see this lady. She

has a SUV. The back of the SUV is opened up.

And in the back of it, there's lots of food.

You know what she's doing? She feeds all the stray dogs.

So all the stray dogs know, Sunday morning, This is Shalem, okay?

In Shalem, they don't like dogs. So all these stray

dogs will come and feed. So every morning as we

pass by, Elder Mabel will pray for her and say, Lord,

bless this generous lady who takes the trouble to do this.

This morning as we pass by, and she prayed that prayer,

the Spirit spoke to me and said, next Sunday, stop

by and give her something to help her in this endeavor.

I did not know that the Holy Spirit spoke to

Elder Mabel exactly the same thing. Because, you know, when

she does the morning, as we're driving in the car,

she'll commit the day into the Lord's hands. And when

she finished the prayer in Jesus' name, amen, she says, love,

you know what? I think we want to give something

to this lady today. I say that's amazing because that's

what the Lord spoke to my heart. You mean God

will also be generous for animals? Yes. What does Scripture say?

He feeds the sparrows. How much more will He feed you?

So this is an opportunity to introduce ourselves to the lady.

You get what I'm saying? So when we go next

week and we give something to this lady, we will say,

we pray for you every Sunday. Introduce ourselves to her.

And then open the scripture and open, you know, Jesus

to her. So this value is a call not to

the same spirit, not to giving out a duty. We

don't want to give out a duty. You see, every

time we pass by, there was no urge to do it.

But today God spoke to us. So if this lady

can do it, how come we don't? That's guilt. So

not occasional charity, but a genuine posture of open-handedness that

reflects who our Father is and keeps our hearts soft

towards Him. Now, I've got to tell you that generosity

is powerful. You know that when you're generous, you can

help and you can build. Now, how many people have

come to the Lord because people just love them and

just cared for them and just shared with them when

they were in a time of need? Not asking anything,

but just sharing with them. It fills voids and fulfills dreams.

Isn't that wonderful? There was this lady, there's this lady

who just passed away in Klang. She's actually my mother's cousin.

She is, well, she was 95 years old. She's my

mother's second cousin. Okay? Or first, well, something cousin. Very

generous lady. She and her husband were millionaires. Okay, but

they live in a double-story house, bungalow. Quite simple people.

Children are successful and married. Do you know what they

do with their money? Very quietly, they're putting children through school.

Putting people through university. Helping poor people. Finding jobs and

giving jobs to people in need. What a way to live, man.

What a way to live. Generous. It's a language that

everybody understands. I tell you, at a funeral, hundreds of

people will be there. Why is that? People understand generosity.

They do. When a need is met, a burden is lifted,

someone gives without an agenda, this is powerful. What kind

of lives do we want to live? It's so easy

to live a life where everything is mine. Don't touch.

Don't touch. Everything is mine. Don't touch. I remember this story.

It's not a story. It's true. So I was in

the pastor's house. And I was very young. This is

more than 40 years ago. Just became a Christian. You

must understand that I was a very selfish kid. Selfish kid, okay?

Like most kids, we think of ourselves. True or not?

Very rare to find a kid that doesn't think of themselves.

But I was one of them. So anyway, the pastor

gave me two guava. One big and one small. So

we were helping him in the house, me and another

church brother. We were helping him in the house. So

he gave two guava, one big, one small. And he says,

give one to Tony. Okay? Give one to Tony. I

didn't know he was watching me. So I went to

Tony and I said, Pastor asked to give guava. So

I had one large one in one hand, one small

one in the other hand. The one in the small

hand went out. Then before he took it, I pulled

that hand back and I gave him the large one.

Then after that, I just continued. Then the pastor came

and said, well done, you passed the test. Generosity, people

are looking. People are observing you. They want to know

what kind of life you're going to be. When I

accepted the Lord, I mean, I may not have had

a lot of money, but when I was studying in Singapore,

you know what I did? I got all my friends

together who were not doing well. I said, come, I

will teach you. So every Saturday, I would spend the

Saturday teaching my friends. Accountancy, management, I would, I was

doing commerce, okay, A-levels. I would teach them. I spent

time sharing with them, teaching them. Did I get any money? No.

Do you know that those friends are my friends until today?

And these are the ones who are church builders? Built

six churches, five churches, sorry, and given to the pastor.

Why is that?

Generosity.

Generosity. You want to be known for something. You want

people not to spit at you when you go. When

you leave this earth, you want people to say, I

miss this guy. True or not? You want a good report.

But the reverse is equally true. When someone is spiritually

dry or unrevived, stinginess becomes natural. Do you know that

It's tough to find a believer who's stingy. If you

find a believer who's stingy, the Spirit of the Lord

has not yet captured the imagination of this person. Because

generosity is actually part and parcel of believing in Jesus.

Because He gave us everything. He didn't hold anything back.

He gave us His full life Yeah? But the reverse

is equally true. Revival. When you revive, when you... I mean,

from a stingy kid, Jesus came into my heart and

I could pull back the small guava and give the

large one. What made the difference? Was it because I

was a nicer person? No. Jesus made the difference. Then

when I went to study, instead of spending the time

for myself, I spent time teaching my friends. Why would

I do that? Jesus made the difference. I mean, I

had no explanation for it then. I do now. Okay?

So the other thing is, when you give, you give meaningfully.

Don't give just as a token, just to erase a conscience.

That kind of giving is more about others. It makes

us feel better without necessarily making a difference. When I

taught my friends, it wasn't just, ah, you just do

like this, do like this, do like this, that's the answer. No.

When I spent time with them, I really taught them.

You know, I would really spend individual time with them

better than any tuition teacher. Why would that be? What

made the difference? Because I didn't want to just give

a token. I wanted them to succeed. You see, there's

a difference. There's a difference. There's a difference to giving

something and wanting people to succeed. You know, many of

us are very generous with our prayers. Praise the Lord.

It's good to be generous with your prayers. Right now.

Do you remember this? I don't know whether I told

you the story, but I'll tell you again. I was

in section 13 at the IT mall. You'll know. You

know the Digi mall, right? Yeah, okay. So I was

at the mall and I was passing by And I

saw this car broken down. Family of three. Have you

heard this story before? No, okay. Three kids, the wife

and then the man. This car stuck in the middle

of the road, cannot start. And I, like a good Christian,

when I passed by, I said, Father, in the name

of Jesus, help this man start the car. And I

drove off. I was so kind. Very generous in my prayer.

And then the Holy Spirit Karim, you go help him.

I said, Lord, I passed already. I'm so far away.

I've already turned. I'm going. And in that silence, you know,

God has already spoken. So I was so fed up. Really,

you know, I turned the car around. I was so angry.

I turned the car around. I came beside him. I said,

open your bonnet. I didn't find out, are you okay?

I didn't ask him his name, nothing. I said, just

open your bonnet. I went in my car, took out

the jumper cables. I fixed it. Start the car. The

car started. I just took my jumper cables, threw it

back in the car and drove off. I didn't speak

to him. I didn't find out anything. I was so upset.

Then I can hear the, it's like I can hear

the Lord laughing. God having his fun with me. You see,

I was still obedient, huh? But I learned something about generosity.

It means, it's not a token. Go and help. So

you prayed, didn't the Lord answer my prayer? He did.

Who did He use to answer my prayer? He used me.

I'll tell you another story. We were in this, you know,

I think it's 99, okay? 99. We were in this shop.

And we saw this poor, I think this poor lady,

poor lady. She went and she wanted to buy, she

looked poor to me. She went and she wanted to

buy rice. So she took the rice and she put

it on the table. And then the counter lady said,

you cannot buy this rice. This is only for Malaysians.

This was shocking to me, you know. Have any of

you heard this? Have any of you seen this before?

It was a shock to me. I didn't realize that

they couldn't buy certain rice because they were not Malaysian.

My wife and me, the other member and myself, we

looked at each other and, you know, our heart was

so cut up about it. So the lady took, the

counter lady said, go and put the rice back. So

as she walked and put the rice back, I told

Elder Mabel, go and give her money to get the rice.

Go and give her money to get the rice. So

she went, she took the money, you know, she went

to get the rice. And then after that, we got

in the car and we drove back. But when we

drove off, our spirit was not settled. I looked at

her and Elder Mabel, what's wrong with us? We should

have just bought the rice and given it to her.

What is this giving 10 ringgit? Why didn't we do that?

We drove the car around, came back to the place.

So now we had just had dinner in a restaurant.

They saw us coming out of the car. And we

were searching the 7-Eleven frantically. But we couldn't find this lady.

It wasn't very long, you know. But we couldn't find

this lady. So the people in the shop came out.

Is everything okay? Is everything okay?

Okay.

I said, did you see a lady come out here

with a, you know, poor looking lady with a bag

of rice? You know, they said, no, we didn't see anybody. Say, no,

if you see her, let us know. We want to

help her. You know, until today, I had those shop

people look after Elder Mabel and myself every time we

go for food there. But you see, that was not

the thing. The thing was we missed an opportunity to

be generous like how God wanted us to be generous.

So we learn. You don't get it right all the time.

But do you know what we did? We went around.

We went searching for her. We drove around the whole

shopping area. For a poor lady who was on two feet,

she disappeared. I'm not saying that she was a spirit

or anything like that. I'm just saying that opportunities come.

Seize it. Seize it. Just do it. Don't question. So

give in a way that actually helps. You see, we helped,

but the word is actually helped. We missed it. So

we learn. We learn. That solves a real problem. Okay,

makes a tangible difference in somebody's life. You want to

make a tangible... What is $ 10? We should have just

bought her the bag of rice. That would have really

helped her. So... It's not just an impulse. What does

the person actually need? And how can I genuinely meet it?

That's what it means to give meaningfully. Why generosity matters.

You see, it reflects our priorities. What is our priority?

Our priority is people. To help people. Where money, our

time goes, tells the real story of what values we hold.

More than anything that we can say Many of you

are young. You will have many opportunities to do the

right thing. Every time you do the right thing when

you're young, you build your spirit. And as you grow older,

it will come back to you. Because generosity is not dead.

Generosity is living. What does the Bible say? Cast your

bread upon the many waters and after many days, it

will return to you. Cast your money on all the

people and after time when you need it, you will

find it again. That's the understanding of that scripture. Okay?

So it keeps a heart soft and focused on God.

If you have to be soft, be soft with God.

If you have to be hard, be hard on anything else.

Be soft towards God's things. Have a soft heart, a focus.

A generous person... A generous person is hard to make selfish.

If you're generous, very hard to make you selfish. You

want to give. You want to give. A person keeps giving,

remembering that everything that we have was first given to them.

Isn't it true? Why is it we go out and

we share Jesus with someone? I mean, look at yourself.

I look at myself. Lord, what a rotten person I'm

looking in the mirror. But somebody told me about Jesus,

and it changed my life. So why not I tell

somebody else? Scripture is true. The Scripture says you and

your household will be saved. When I became a Christian,

45 or 47 years ago, probably 47 years ago, 49

years ago, this is 2006, 47 years ago, When I

became a Christian 47 years ago, my father completely disliked

what I did to receive Jesus. In fact, he punched

me in the face. He was a boxer. Nothing happened

to me, you know. The Lord looked after me. But

I want to tell you that 47 years later, about

two months ago, I've led him to the Lord. And

he has received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. My

father is about to pass away any time now. Any

moment now. In fact, his time is measured between hours

to a couple of days. But he knows Jesus. In fact,

two days ago, he can barely talk, but he can

call me Terrence. Come here. So I come by his

side and say, Dad, how are you? You know what

he can answer me? I'm okay if I look good

to you. He stopped talking already. a generous person stays soft-hearted.

When you know Jesus loves you, share Him with somebody else.

It doesn't matter. Your father doesn't like what you've done.

47 years after that, he will receive Jesus. It's okay.

Because the Bible tells the truth. You in the household

will be saved. So it reminds us how generous God

has been to everyone and every act. Look at Jesus.

I mean, come on. Let's look at him. He's on

the cross, hung, nails in his hands, breathing bad. By

the way, the thorns, how long do you think the

thorns were? In my parents' house, they hanged crown of

thorns brought from Israel. These are the small ones, okay?

The small ones are two inches long. They are sharp

and they are strong wood. They're like wood, not this

chaplang kind of thorns that we see around here, small fellas.

This is the one that God, that Jesus had put

on his head. With all that, he can just look

and say, Father, forgive them for they know not what

they do. How lovely is that? Isn't that wonderful? I

wrote a song on that. One day, hopefully, I'll get

to sing it. Okay. So now, remember I promised you

the example in Scripture, right? You know why we have

to be good. You know why we have to be generous.

But let's look at Jesus and the example of Jesus

and what Jesus taught. Okay? In Luke chapter 10, I'm

Luke 10 · chapter mention

going to be doing a reading from verse 10 to

verse 35. It says, When Jesus answered and said to him,

A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and

fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him,

and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, okay,

the world is not generous. The world you and I

live in is not generous. You see, you know why

we have to be generous? Because the world we live

in is not generous. What does the world want to do?

It wants to steal from you. Okay? It wants to

ridicule you. You know what it means, stripped of his clothing?

It wants to embarrass you. Because when you're embarrassed, you

are afraid you're shy and you hide so the world

wants you to hide in embarrassment the world wants to

um steal from you and then it's not satisfied to

do all that it wants to hurt you True or not?

How many of you got horror monsters for bosses? Don't

pull up your hands. True or not? You do good things,

they come after you. You do bad things, they come

after you. You can say, okay lah. You do good

things and they still come after you. Why is that?

Because that is the nature of the world. Okay? And

then they, not only that, when they finish with you,

they just leave you to die. You think the world

loves you? 47 years I've lived, I know one thing.

The world does not love us. Only Jesus does. Now,

by chance, a certain priest came on the road and

when he saw him, he passed by to the other side. Hey, guys,

I know you know this, the parable of the good Samaritan,

an answer to being a neighbor, okay? But I want

to talk to you about the spirit of generosity here.

All right? There's a spirit of generosity at work. So

the priest saw this person and walked by on the

other side. Hey, I got service. I cannot be late.

I got things to do for the body of Christ.

I cannot be seen to be participating in this. You know,

I asked the Lord about this. What if I'm to

preach in Cheras today? I made it, okay? I'm to

preach here. And let's just say, yeah, I saw an

accident on the road, and some people needed medical attention.

So I needed to take them to the hospital. So

I took them to the hospital. Let's say it delayed

me one and a half hours. I come here, and

I reach here 10 minutes before service ends. And then

I say, come now. I'll preach the word. How many

of you will have a smile on your face? I'm

not talking about you, I'm talking about me as well.

How many of us would have a smile on our face?

Would we be generous with our time because somebody acted

on behalf of the church to show generosity to someone else?

Would we? Think about it. Let's just say... That means

the whole service is now put on hold because I

have not showed up. Because I'm helping someone else. Okay,

truthful question because we are learning here. How many of

you would think, nobody's going to look down on any

one of us, how many of you think that the

church service, the service and worship of the Lord is so,

so very important that we cannot show disloyalty or be

like that towards the Lord, disrespect to the Lord by

being late. Show of hands. Be honest. You see, because

it's true, God always comes first, right or not? So

many of us would be governed by that. We will

be so afraid to displease the Lord... So we would

be like this Levite. Leave him because I have to

go for service. Right or not? Remember that, huh? I

want to answer that. Verse 32. Likewise, a Levite, when

he arrived by the place, came and looked at him

and passed by on the other side. You know who

is the Levite? The Levite could be the church leader.

First the pastor, now the church leader. If I'm late,

there'll be no one to pray when it comes time

for praying. I have to go. Sorry, I cannot be here.

Forget about it. You know, hopefully somebody else will take

care of your mess. Why not? Hey, these are questions

and situations that we face every day. And the Lord

taught me about it today. So I will share with

you what the Lord taught me. So, it's like this.

Let's look to Jesus. Jesus was on his way to

heal a girl. Very important, ma. The girl was dying.

He was on his way to heal a girl. And

when he was traveling, somebody came and stopped him by being,

she was healed by the flow of blood. She touched

his garment and he was healed. And he asked, who

is this? that caused healing to come out of me.

And then he spent some time there. He didn't rush, what?

Important thing, the girl is dying. What did he do?

He stayed there and attended to the one who had need.

The girl actually died. But you know what? He went

and he brought the girl back to life. See, I

want you to know his priorities are a little bit different.

Let's look at another case. His own friend was dying. Lazarus. Wow.

His best friend, you know. Lazarus was sick and was dying.

And his two other best friends, Mary and Martha, come Jesus,

come Jesus, come Jesus, come, come, come, come, come. What

did Jesus do? He stayed another two days. Because the

work of the Lord needed to be done. What happened?

Lazarus died. What did Jesus do? Came and healed him.

So this is the lesson I want to tell you.

If I'm the preacher for the morning, okay, And then

that kind of help is needed. And I stop to help,

meaning I would be late for service. I'm not disrespecting

the Lord. I'm following His example. Do you know that?

And perhaps that moment when I share that message, dead

spirits will come to life. And how are you and

I supposed to respond in a situation like that? Praise

the Lord. Start your preaching now. It's okay. My time

I give to you. You went to help that person.

You were helping that person on my behalf. You know

what that is? Generosity. The moment you say, I'm late.

I've got to eat. I'm hungry. You missed the boat.

This is A meat message, okay, is not a fluff.

It's something you and I, we need to... You better

ask yourself the question. When it happens to you, you

know what to do. Of course, now, praise the Lord,

we have headphones. Hey, I'm here helping somebody. I'm going

to be late. It's going to be okay. So now

the chairman comes up and says, oh, you just received

word from our speaker. He's going to be late. If

you hear the crowd say, ah... then you have to

teach them this message of generosity. If you hear the

crowd say, oh, praise the Lord, we'll pray, let's pray.

You know the spirit of generosity is working in that church. Okay? Now.

A certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was

and saw and had compassion. We want to talk about generosity.

This was a person who should not have helped a

Jew because the Samaritans and the Jews didn't get along.

They were like enemies, ma. In real life, politicians make

us enemies. But really, when you meet people, you're not

enemies with one another, but politicians are always talking the rubbish.

That's the fact. But you and your neighbor, no problem.

You can be friendly. So anyway. So this guy, he stops.

I mean, he's got work. He was a businessman, okay?

He's got a job to do. You know what he did?

He stopped. He cleaned the guy's wounds. He poured his

food on him. What I mean by food is, Oil

and drink, what do you think he keeps the oil for?

He keeps the oil to cook food. What do you

think he keeps the wine for? To drink. So he

gave this person his own material and then what he

does is, hey, it's like you put the guy in

the car and you walk. It's like you're giving him

the taxi here. and you walk six kilometers does it

make sense or not that's what he did here look

he put him on his own animal and then what

does he do he takes him to the nearest hospital

let's call the in the hospital okay those days no

hospitals you got an in so Let's say take him

to the hospital. So now what he does is he

actually takes this guy to the place where he needed to,

you know, he found a nice bed and then he

cares for him for one day, you know. Do they

know each other? No. Will you and I do such

a thing? Will we care for someone we don't know?

How am I for time? Okay. You got to let

me know, huh? You're letting me know, right? Okay. I

want to be generous with everybody. If I take too

much of your time, then maybe they will be upset.

So I'll be generous and don't take too much of

your time. Are you getting something? I hope so. Anyway,

so now what he does is he looks after the

guy and not satisfied with that, he tells the innkeeper, hey,

I got to go, man. I really have work. I

need to go. But I tell you what, you look

after him. You look after him. Then he gives the guy,

he took out two nanari. If I'm not mistaken, it's

either two weeks wages or two months wages. He takes

out money and he gives the innkeepers. You look after him.

You take care of him. Don't worry. And if you

spend any more, I'm coming back this way. I will pay. Now,

If he's meeting the innkeeper for the first time, okay,

if he's meeting the innkeeper for the first time, do

you think the innkeeper would trust him? How many of

you think the innkeeper would trust him or should trust him?

Put up your hands. Okay, any more? So only one, huh? Okay,

I go with him. You know why I go with him?

Because here is a man who's bringing someone who was

hurt on the road. He's telling the innkeeper, I don't

know who he is. And then the innkeeper looks at

him and says, wow, he's got bandage. He's been taken

care of. And then after that, this man gives money

and says, whatever you do, you look after him. When

I come back, I will pay. You know what? I,

as the innkeeper, would think, this man got integrity. I

would trust him. Why would I trust him? Look at

what he's doing. He's helping a stranger. He's giving me money.

How does he know I'm not going to kill the fella,

take the money and throw the body away? True or not?

He's trusting me. You're right. The innkeeper would trust him.

Generosity begets generosity. It grows. It teaches. even without words.

I'd like to think that the innkeeper now trusts him. Why?

Because this man has been branded a generous person. branded

a generous person. Do you know that every time now

the innkeeper looked at that man, he would trust him. Why?

This is a generous man. This is a generous man.

Do you understand what generosity branded means now? When people

look at this man, This Samaritan, they would see somebody good.

And how do we know this? More than 2,000 years later,

this man has had organizations named after him. Good Samaritans.

Have you heard of this group called the Good Samaritans? Where?

This man. So which of these three, Jesus asked, do

you think was the neighbor who fell on him? He

who showed mercy. Generosity is mercy. There are things we

can do. Being a generous person doesn't call us to

do things we cannot do. But there are things that

we can do. Let's do it. There are things we

cannot do. For example, the man couldn't stay one. He

had to go and do his work. He couldn't do that.

But what could he do? He was generous. Look after him.

Take care of him. I will come back and I

will repay you. Isn't that wonderful? There's a building of trust.

Why do we want to be generosity branded? So people

will trust us. Look at the trust that Jesus has

built for himself. Over 2,000 years. How do we know this?

He gave of himself. He hung on the cross. Then

he says, Father, forgive them for they know not what

they do. Build trust. And I want you to know,

generosity is mercy. Why would you be generous? You want

to be merciful. I could have kept to myself, my knowledge,

and be the top student, I would have looked even better.

If everybody failed and I passed, wouldn't I look very good?

True or not? Do you know it's like the crab

in the, have you heard the story, the crab in

the basket? They put all the crabs in the basket.

They don't even bother to tie the crabs up, but

the crabs can never leave the basket. You know why?

Because when one crab clams up, the other crabs will

pull him in. We don't want to be like the crabs, okay?

We want to lift people up. Even if it means

we're at the bottom, it's okay. It's okay. Because that

is what is known as mercy. And I'm going to

end with this. And how many minutes do I have left?

Two minutes, right? I want to end with this. Legacy.

There is legacy. That's what it means by being branded.

You want to have the legacy of being someone that

people looks at and says, this is a generous person.

And then people, why can he be so generous? Because

he is a believer of Jesus Christ. See, everything you

and I does must point to Jesus. Even that generous

nature we have has got to point to Jesus. Not

to ourselves. Please don't mistake any of the stories that

I told you to make it seem like I'm somebody great. No,

that is not the story. The story is somebody like

me changed because of Jesus and made me different. Made

me not what I used to be, but made me

somebody new. And today, like I said, those friends, one

is a pastor, One is a missionary to Southeast Asia.

One builds churches. Why? Because somebody was generous to them.

I share in their joy each and every day. I

pray that the Word of God will speak to your

hearts and encourage you to live a life of generosity.

That's the word for today. Let's have the ministry team

come up. Wow. Who knows? Who knew you could learn

generosity from the good Samaritan? Generosity branded. That's why it's

one of the core values of X Church. Not because

we want X Church to get, oh, X Church, no.

What do we want? We want to be able to

lift up the name of Jesus so that when people

point to our generosity, we will point it back to Jesus.

More people will come to the Lord. That is our desire.

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

information on our church, please visit axechurch.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.