Message - Better to Give than to Receive

Well, today we start a brand new series called Better.

For the last several months, we've been going through the book of Romans.

We're gonna get back to Romans here in in just a few weeks, but uh but this this last Roman series we were in, it was pretty intense.

And so I felt like we really needed something a little different.

And so this series is called it's called Better.

And the goal of this series is very, very simple.

That's an amen.

It's to have a better life.

To have a better life.

I think naturally we all desire better.

And if better is available, why not desire better?

But in order to have better, you have to choose better.

And we could just say, hey, make better choices, and yeah, that's true, but that's a little hazy, a little fuzzy because what are the better choices that we're supposed to make?

I think sometimes in life we struggle because we're just not aware of what the better decisions are.

And so I don't want to say make better decisions, I want to say choose better, because I think we need to understand that in life we almost always have a choice.

More often than we realize, we almost always have a choice.

And in almost every aspect of life, sitting in front of us are two different approaches, two different mindsets, two different ways of going about life, at the very least, often more than that, and we just have to choose the better option.

It's like it's like choosing an item from a menu.

That's something that I'm sure all of us are familiar with.

We've all had that experience where you open up a menu and you've got to make a decision.

And hopefully you choose something that is right for you.

You you want to make the right choice.

I'll never forget when I was in middle school, my family went to Red Lobster for lunch.

And I haven't told this story in several years, and so if you've heard it before, just bear with me.

But there's a lot of people who haven't.

Uh, this was like a life-changing moment for me going to Red Lobster with my family in middle school.

Number one, I love Red Lobster.

And if you get hungry as I talk about this today, just know that we are pretty much equidistant between two Red Lobsters.

There's one on like Busby Parkway down by Barrett Parkway if you want to go south.

Riverstone Parkway's got one if you want to go north.

I didn't check, I should have.

I don't know if they're open right now.

Uh, probably they are.

Oh, I know, because you're like manager at Red Lobster.

That's right.

I remember this.

It just connected.

Let's hear it for the Red Lobster manager that's in the front row this morning.

This was not planned.

That's called the Holy Spirit.

Okay, so uh so I'm in middle school, and and we didn't go to Red Lobster very often, but like when we did, it was always exciting because cheddar biscuits.

Am I right?

Like, have you had a cheddar biscuit from Red Lobster?

It's it's a beautiful thing.

It's uh one of life's great things.

And so I was just excited about that.

Everything else was bonus.

But we went, it was me, my dad, myself, my mom.

I said me, my dad, myself.

I was obviously there.

Uh it was it was my dad, my mom, me, and my little brother, who's almost seven years younger than me.

And so when I was in middle school, he probably would have been first grade at this point in time.

And I remember going through the whole ordering process, and I'll never forget this moment because my little brother ordered last.

I ordered some you know random thing that probably cost like 10 bucks because I wanted to make sure I was, you know, ordering something my dad would be okay with.

And my dad ordered whatever he ordered.

My mom, I'm sure, got a salad, and uh she always got salads.

And then my little brother, who went last, first grade, looked at the waiter and said, I'll have lobster fest.

And uh and everyone just sort of paused.

Now, I don't know if Red Lobster still does this or not, do they?

Is Lobster Fest still a thing?

Not right now, no lobster fest.

Okay, sorry to burst that bubble.

But back then, they had this thing called Lobster Fest.

And it was like pretty expensive, like it cost over 50 bucks, and it's really designed for like a whole table.

Like everyone just bring it on.

It's multiple dishes, all with lobster, all like the good stuff.

And I remember laughing out loud, like, what my dumb little brother.

You know what I mean?

This this because he's my little brother, I can say that.

Like ordering lobster fest.

Like, come on, dude.

And then I'll never forget what happened next.

The waiter looked at my dad, kind of like, what do I do with this?

And my dad went, Why not?

And I was furious.

Like, I was furious, number one, because like little, like younger siblings get away with everything.

Those of us in the room that are older siblings, do you agree with that?

That like you watched your younger siblings.

I know if I had ordered lobster fest, I'd my dad would have been like, no, what's wrong with you, right?

I say that, but but apparently not.

Because my dad said yes, and and I remember when the when the dishes came out and I had my one dish, and my little brother's just surrounded with plates.

You know, and he's like, Oh, I'm saying he wouldn't really share much of it all.

And my parents just thought it was the cutest thing in the world.

I remember being like actually upset.

But then it hit me.

I could have ordered that too.

It was on my menu as well.

I just didn't choose it.

I think sometimes that's how life works.

I I could have made the same decision, I could have chosen the same thing, but I didn't.

My brother made the better choice, so he had the better meal.

It's as simple as that.

We have to learn to recognize the decisions in front of us, to have the discernment to choose better because we recognize what better is, and especially if we're living in partnership with God, we can desire to discern what his better is for our lives.

And if that's what we choose on a regular basis, our lives are gonna be better.

Because there's some there's some fundamental truths that we have to understand.

Number one, God desires better.

I hope you understand this.

God desires better for your life.

Ephesians 2.10 says, we are God's masterpiece.

He created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things that he planned for us long ago.

God planned good things for you long ago.

Before you existed, before you had dreams for your life, God had dreams for your life.

Before you had plans for your life, God had plans for your life, and those plans were good.

God desires better.

I heard a pastor say this, and it was one of those quotes that I immediately paused what I was listening to, wrote it down, it was so good.

He said, God has planned for you exactly what you would plan for yourself if you knew what he knows.

God has planned for you exactly what you would plan for yourself if you knew what he knows.

And that brings us to a second fundamental truth.

God doesn't only desire better, he knows better.

God, God knows better.

And I think we all understand that intellectually, we're all like, yeah, yeah, yeah, God knows everything, so surely he knows better than me.

But it's amazing how often, as a parent, my struggle with my kids is just trying to convince them that maybe, just maybe, I know more than them.

Like maybe, just maybe there's a chance that at 37 years old, compared to 10 or 6 or 4 or 2, that I know just a few more things, and if they would learn to trust me and follow my lead, it would go well for them.

But it's funny how hard of a thing that is for them.

And I look back and it was hard for me too, because even though we we intellectually understand that God knows better, sometimes deep down inside we're like, I don't know.

I don't know if if his way is better than my way.

I struggle to trust that.

But he does know better.

He's God.

And here's the thing if God desires better for you, and God knows better than you, if those two things are true, then if you made your life's mission to discover, to discern what his better is for your life, you would experience better.

That's the goal of the next several weeks.

We're actually gonna look at some scriptures, really simple, but really profound scriptures that tell us, right out what better looks like.

That's the beauty of scripture.

It helps us make those decisions, it helps us discern things.

I'll go back to the menu example.

I don't want to run this into the ground, and I know I'm making you guys hungry talking about food, but you know, lunch is it's it's coming.

So, like when you go to a restaurant, you have the menu, you have all the choices, but every once in a while the the chef will have a special, right?

The chef will say, Hey, this is what I recommend.

Scripture does that for us, it gives us the ability to not just look at our life and see what all the options are, but actually hear from the master.

This is what I would tell you is better.

So we're we're gonna look at these five scriptures one at a time.

And I really do want to challenge you over the course of the next few weeks, the next five weeks, be here every Sunday if you can physically great, if you're or watch online, one of those two.

Engage every single Sunday because I'm telling you, if one of these hits you and you apply it to your life, your life's gonna be better.

If two or three of them hit you and you apply it to your life, even better.

And if all five, um, well then I'll resign and you can be the pastor because you'll be in an incredible place.

That's how powerful these truths are.

So let's just look at them real quick.

Proverbs 17, one.

Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting and conflict.

Proverbs 16, 16.

How much better to get wisdom than gold and good judgment than silver.

Proverbs 27, 6, wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.

1 Samuel 15, 22, obedience is better than sacrifice.

And today, Acts 20, 35, you should remember the words of Lord of the Lord Jesus.

It is better to give than to receive.

We're gonna look at those one at a time, starting with Acts 20, 35.

It is better to give than to receive.

Now, whether or not you realize that's a Jesus quote or not, quick show of hands.

Those of you watching from home, whatever platform you're on, just hit the like button, engage with it somehow.

Uh, how many of you have heard that phrase before?

It is better to give than to receive.

Okay.

It's a common saying.

We're gonna look at that today.

That comes from Scripture.

Acts 20, 35 is the origin of that phrase.

But a few things, real quick, a couple little side notes.

Number one, this is not a message about giving money to his hands.

We did a generosity update.

God's doing great things.

Many of you do give.

Thank you for that.

If you don't, you want to, you have that opportunity.

We're grateful for it.

But that's not what today's about.

This is not about giving money to this church or to any organization.

This is about the way that we see what God has given us, the way we approach life in general.

Living life as a giver.

Whatever that God has given us, whether it's our resources, which is a big part of it, our time, our energy, our talents, how can I, how can I live so that I'm living to give?

It says it's better to live that way than it is to live to receive.

It's not about giving money to a church, it's about it's about you living with this approach to life, with a generous approach, being committed to generosity in every aspect of life.

Number two, this is an interesting thing, it's kind of an interesting little biblical side note.

We actually don't have a record of Jesus saying this in the Gospels.

The Gospels being Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four books of the Bible that that really tell us the teachings of Jesus, the story of Jesus.

He actually never says this in those books, but then in Acts it says, remember the words of the Lord Jesus.

It is better to give than to receive.

The amazing thing is we see this in John chapter 21, verse 25.

John 21:25

It says, Jesus did many other things.

If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.

One of the amazing truths we have to understand about Jesus is he's incredible, he's awesome.

We read his teachings, they change your life.

He sees the world like no one else has ever seen the world or will ever seen the world because he's the author of it.

But we don't even have all of the things he did or said written down.

That's a powerful thing.

And so, this obviously this statement, it's better to give than receive.

This is something that Jesus clearly said that his disciples remembered him saying, and they would tell other people, Oh, remember when Jesus said this?

But it's not one of the things that we have written down.

It is consistent, though, with many things that we do have written down in the Gospels.

For example, Luke 6.38, give and you will receive.

Your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, poured into your lap.

The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

Matthew 6.21, Jesus said, Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

You know, finances, and in the way we we look at that aspect of life, it shows so much about who we are as people.

It really does.

It's amazing.

Uh, I read a statistic.

70% of Americans are stressed out about finances, and that was before coronavirus.

I doubt that's gone down.

The second leading cause of divorce in America is fights about money.

Now, what's crazy about that is we are living in a time and in a culture where we have more money than most people who have ever lived in the history of the world could have ever dreamed of having.

Like most of us, if not, if not all of us, even if we're not considered wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, in our society, we have more than most people have ever had.

And yet 70% plus stressed out about money.

Finances, they have this interesting connection to our heart.

That's why Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.

This reveals the desires of your heart.

So it's very important that this is an area of life we get right, because if we want to have a better life, that's tough when we're consumed with stress about our resources or or lack thereof.

Third little side note, um, Jesus didn't actually say better.

It's it's the only this is the only scripture that we're gonna cover in this series where where the word better isn't actually part of the scripture.

But it's funny, like I asked a minute ago, how many of you have heard the phrase, it's better to give than to receive, and like you all raised your hand, so you can't take that back now.

You can't act like, oh, I knew that.

No, no, no, you didn't know because you raised your hand.

Um it's funny, uh, Jesus actually said it's it's more blessed to give than to receive.

You're more blessed to give.

Some scriptures will will interpret that, some translations to say you'll be far happier to give than to receive, because the Greek word that gets translated blessed also means happy.

But it's it's weird, is I was planning this series out, and I was like, Lord, like which ones do you want us to cover?

This whole better idea.

Like clearly in my heart, like, oh yeah, better to give than to receive.

We have to do that.

And so I got it all planned out, and then I looked, and it's like, oh no, it doesn't actually say better.

That's the whole title of the series.

I can't, what am I gonna do?

You know?

And then I started doing a Google search, and it's like the phrase, better to give than to receive.

It's a super common phrase.

Crazy, crazy common.

And it's not inaccurate, it completely lines up with what Jesus taught.

It's just that over the years, over the last 2,000 plus years, people have taken this statement of Jesus and they've just said it like this.

It's better to give than to receive.

And Jesus would look at that and go, I agree.

It's better to give than to receive.

That happens with phrases sometimes.

They they get changed over time.

Sometimes their meaning gets changed, but this one, slight change, but it's it's better.

It's better to give than to receive.

Now, normally what I would do right here in the message is I would I would now begin like making some arguments.

I'd try to connect the dots.

I'd tell a funny story, maybe help you connect the dots, believe this is true, so that we walk out of here today believing, yes, it is better to give than to receive.

Um, but I want to take a different approach today.

Oh.

Wow.

I don't know if I should I probably should be flattered.

Like, you just want me to talk.

You should talk to my wife, because she almost never wants me to talk.

And uh, I'm gonna tell her someone said awe when I said I'm not gonna do that.

I want to I want to take a different approach.

Because it's funny, as I was praying through this and just thinking through this statement, I really wanted to ask the question, is this true?

Because I would imagine that if I said to you, hey, do you believe it's better to give than to receive?

Most of us would go, Yes, I believe that.

And then if I said, Thank God, because I was gonna give you a million dollars, but now I'm not.

Because I know that you you aren't blessed by receiving, you're blessed by giving.

So thanks for that.

And I walked on, you'd be like, wait, wait, hold on.

Loophole.

If you give me a million dollars, I could be blessed to give a lot of that away.

You know what I mean?

Like, like, no, like we enjoy receiving.

And it's funny because I was thinking about it, is this something we actually believe?

I think most human beings would be like, yes, I believe it is better to give than to receive.

But if you really drill down into that and ask the question, like, really, is that really true?

It's a nice thought, it's a nice saying, but at a core level, do I actually believe that it's better to give than to receive?

And I think many people would be like, yeah, I don't know.

Is this true?

And so I started praying and thinking, and and God brought to my mind several people that I know that I have relationships with who are just more generous than I could even imagine.

Like, now, now look, number one, if you're not one of the people I reached out to, don't be offended.

I'm looking around right now.

I know a ton of generous people in this room, but there were a few specific people that just came to my mind because I've seen them do things that honestly don't make a lot of sense from a generosity perspective.

And so I emailed every single one of them and I said, Hey, the phrase, it's better to give than to receive.

How has that proven true in your life?

Because I knew that they all believed that.

How has that proven true in your life?

Is that true?

And I wanted to share with you their responses.

Because I thought, how better to go about this than to look at what people who have actually done this at a large level, sacrificially.

What people who have actually done this and lived this out have to say.

And so I'm not gonna share you their names because I don't want you to go up to them with investment opportunities.

Um, we'll keep them anonymous, but let me just share some of their responses.

And what's really cool about this, by the way, is most of these people don't even know each other.

I was thinking through it, I was like, oh, this person, they've never even met this person, and this is just completely independent people.

None of them coordinated, talked together, but there were so many threads that were common in what they shared.

So here we go.

One person said, Giving helps me shift from a scarcity mindset to realize that I always have more than I need.

Realizing that the universe is not a place of lack, but of abundance is a requirement for maximum growth, contribution, and happiness.

Another person said, being generous is really living in a thankful state of mind.

When you spend time thinking of other people and feeling grateful for them, you want to share your life with them and you want more for them.

I changed for the better when I made generosity my life's mission.

I became more thankful for my life because I know I'm not alone.

Someone else wrote, There's such a blessing on our giving.

God has designed his kingdom to work in such a way that giving is like a seed that we plant that generates a harvest.

Seeds reproduce after their own kind, so yes, I believe financial giving does result in financial blessing, but it's not limited to that.

Paul makes the statement that love does not seek its own.

In other words, love does not give from a self-centered motive.

Love would rather love would give whether there was a blessing or not.

Our giving should be a matter of us expressing love.

That is the type of giving that God truly blesses.

Someone else wrote, There is nothing like the supernatural joy that comes from giving, and no other way to get that specific joy.

Once God changes us over time to know that it's all God's, it becomes a real blast because we get to give away and invest in the kingdom somebody else's money.

It's fun.

Like baptism, generosity is an action step that almost instantly aligns us with what God is doing on earth.

Someone else said that when you give to others, you're able to bless.

It is especially rewarding to be a conduit to share God's blessing with others.

Everything we have and everything anyone has really belongs to God.

He will channel the resources to those in need.

We can either be a conduit for that and witness the blessing, or he'll use someone else and we'll miss out.

It's so nice to see God's work and the lives that are positively impacted.

I have found that if you're just looking to receive, you can become bitter because you'll never receive enough.

You'll always want more.

However, if you're looking for ways to give, they are boundless, with a reward of joy attached to each one.

Giving to others is a way to increase your happiness.

As parents, it warms our hearts when we see our little children sharing with others.

I am sure God feels the same way.

How true is that last statement as a parent, those of you that have had kids or have kids, when you see your kids share.

Sometimes you even get personally convicted by that.

My oldest son, I don't know if you guys know this or not, but I have a son who loves basketball.

And uh this last year he uh he started collecting basketball cards.

And so we've been having some fun trying to find ways to you know collect cards and open packs here and there and stuff like that.

And uh and it's awesome because already he's he's opened some packs that have duplicates.

Like he's got extra cards of some players that he likes.

And I was I was a kid who collected cards when I was younger.

Baseball cards were like a big thing when I was in elementary school.

And I told him, I was like, dude, what's great about getting a duplicate is that when you go to a friend's house that also collects cards, you can trade that card and and you can get like a card you don't have, and you can trade them that way.

So keep your duplicates saved so that you can do that.

And he looked at me kind of puzzled, and he goes, Dad, if I have more than one card, I'm just gonna give that to one of my friends.

And I was like, Ooh, yeah, why don't you do that?

You know?

But I was in that moment, like I was so I was so proud.

I was so proud to have a child that was like, no, I don't, I'm not interested in getting something else.

I have enough.

I want to give to someone else.

That's how that's how God feels about us when we're generous.

The idea of being able to bring a smile to God's face is just a powerful thought.

And giving it, it honors him, it blesses him in a unique way.

I think everything that those people shared was was powerful, and it's all stuff that I've seen play out in my own life.

That whole idea of when you live to receive, you never receive enough.

Can anybody be like vulnerable and honest enough to admit that you've experienced that?

That you've lived trying to receive, and it's like it never satisfies?

Me and seven other people.

Cool.

Um, no, it's all right.

No, seriously, like I've found that the more focused I am on my happiness, the less happy I am.

It's amazing.

It's amazing how how when when I have a day that I don't have a lot to do, and I just decide this is a me day, those are often my worst days.

Because I begin the day and I'm all about like, what do I want to do?

What do I want to watch on TV?

What do I want to eat?

What about me?

And by like halfway through the day, I'm this this doesn't satisfy at all.

At all.

I know I've shared this example before, but like the biggest one in my life was the last house that we had had a room that was just screaming to be a man cave.

It was it had like concrete walls.

It was an actual cave.

And and so I spent like the like two years sort of bit by bit accumulating the pieces for my man cave.

And when it was all said and done, I walked in there and I turned on the TV and I shut the door and I was like, yes.

And I turned it to ESPN, and like 10 minutes in, I was I was lonely.

And I ended up just opening the door.

And I was like, hey, who wants to come in here?

And uh within a year of that moment, uh the man cave had changed.

Uh Lily had moved all of her toys in there, and as the only girl in our house, she just felt like maybe she needed a space, you know, to be able to watch Sophia the first and not watch the shows that her brothers were watching.

And it wasn't the man cave anymore, it was uh it was Lily's little princess palace, and it was great.

And I'll be honest, I enjoyed it much more as that than when it was for me.

Because this truth is real.

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

When you live your life thinking about how to increase your own happiness, you will see your happiness drain.

But when you live your life obsessed with seeing other people be blessed, it magnifies and intensifies your joy.

It just is the way it works.

When you live your life and all you can think about is what you have and what you don't have, this weird thing begins to happen where the only time you're happy is when something good happens to you.

And if something good happens to someone else, sometimes you even get mad about it.

Yeah, that's a good jam right there.

You can answer it, it's all good.

Like when you live your life and you're all about you, all of a sudden when something good happens to someone else, you're almost upset about that because that didn't happen to you.

You didn't get that promotion, you didn't get that raise.

You don't have the funds to buy a new car.

But when you stop thinking that way and you're you're focused, you're aligned, really, it's about spiritual alignment.

You're aligned with the heart of God.

And you're focused on blessing others and giving to others.

When you do that, then other people's blessings bless you.

Your joy magnifies because when you live selfishly, every single blessing you have, it's magnified to the power of one.

Just you.

But whenever you live to bless others, your joy, it exponentially increases by however many people you care about, by however many people that you invest in.

And when something happens in their life, it brings you joy.

When they get the promotion, you're excited.

Even if you hate your job and they get a promotion, you're like, yes, that's awesome.

You have more joy in your life because when you live to bless others, when you live to give, that's just that's what happens.

That's the way that God's designed his kingdom to work.

It is counterintuitive.

It is, it is almost everything Jesus says, by the way, is counterintuitive, but it works.

It was amazing as I as I read through the responses that were sent to me by those people, the threads that I saw that were in almost every single, every single email.

As we wrap up, I want to read these real quick just to encourage you.

Number one, almost everyone expressed that giving was really hard at first.

It was really tough.

One person said, it's hard at first, but it gets much easier as you go.

Once we experience that we can trust God, He'll take care of us, then we have less of the pain and all of the joy.

Almost every single person expressed it was hard at first.

So if you're like, man, I want to be someone who blesses others.

I want to be someone who lives, not obsessed with what I get, but with what I can do for other people, but man, it's it's tough.

You're not alone, it's tough for everybody.

Almost everyone expressed that they started small.

I think sometimes we we get so excited about doing a big thing.

We want to do something big, we want to change someone's life.

But big things always start small.

Somebody wrote that for them, generosity started with something small like the ability to pray for another person.

And that turned into writing cards or letters to others, and that turned into meals for families.

They said, because God watched me take what I have and share it with other people, he trusts me to do more.

Now I have the ability to financially bless people and organizations that mean something to me.

I feel honored to know that God sees my heart and has trusted me to continue to give to others beyond my expectations.

Almost every single person at some point in the email that they sent expressed that they don't they don't give to get.

They're not trying to like game the system.

They don't give in order to receive, but they've experienced receiving things from God that they knew were connected to the way that they give.

It's just the way it works.

Someone wrote the bottom line is that I do not give to receive, I give to bless others and carry out the work of God's kingdom.

But I also know God and understand that this results in greater financial blessing to me.

It's like it's just the way it goes.

Almost every single person expressed increased happiness and joy, and not one person expressed regret.

And that, by the way, that's like that's the thing.

That's I've never, I've never met someone who lived generously and regretted it.

I've yet to hear, I mean, I'm around thousands of people.

Thousands of people all the time, and I've never heard someone say, Yeah, I made a decision years ago to begin to live a generous life.

And man, I wish I could have some of that back.

Because there's this thing that I really want, and this thing that I want to do, and man, if I realize if I hadn't given that away, if I hadn't, if I hadn't done what I did, I'd have it.

I'm bummed.

I've never heard one person do that.

Not one.

But it's almost a cliche to think about someone who's lived their life selfishly and toward the end going, man, I wish I could have done more.

God has designed us to be like him.

And he gives.

He's generous.

And so I want to I want to encourage you, challenge you today.

It is better to give than to receive.

It is more blessed.

You will be far happier giving than receiving, without doubt.

It's better.

And if you want a better life, if you want to experience better, if you want to choose better, then choose to bless other people.

As we wrap up today and walk out these doors, you're gonna walk by a ton of boxes from Serve.

We still need people to stay after and decorate boxes.

If you're not familiar, we started partnering with Serve last week and they're doing these food boxes.

We're gonna hopefully do just under a thousand boxes for people in Cherokee County.

We're gonna get food to them, people that are struggling right now.

Um a lot of a lot of this goes through elementary schools and other organizations, really, really great stuff.

And uh here in about a week or so, the the entire lobby is gonna be filled with food supplies.

And we're gonna actually pack those boxes with food.

But today, we're we're writing messages, we're encouraging people so that when they receive that box, not only is it food, but it's it's love.

It's hey, God loves you, we're praying for you, things like that.

If you want to stick around afterward today and and sign some boxes, write some some notes, go for it.

But we're gonna have opportunities for you to do things like that.

I I I pray today, like this, if there is one practical thing you could do today to start putting this in place, if you go out to eat at all this week, next week, or if you if you get if you get food, I don't know if you ever do this or not, but if you ever like order takeout, it makes it sound like I never eat anything that I don't order at a restaurant.

That's not true, but but uh I like I like eating.

And so if you, as you can tell, if you order food at a restaurant and you get it to go, you know how when you get food to go, you have that tip option?

I don't know if you ever have this thought where you're like, how much tip does the to-go person really deserve?

You know what I mean?

Because they haven't like, I mean, like when I'm at a restaurant, they're bringing me something to drink.

I feel like a really selfish person right now, but just go with me.

Like, they bring me something to drink and they're helping me out, but like the to-go person just kind of goes, here you go.

And I'm like, a tip?

I don't know.

Like this week, just write an awesome tip.

Do that.

Like, give give a great tip to somebody else.

Find find a way this week to give an hour, one hour of time to someone else.

Like, like ask God.

God will, he will, he will create a creativity inside of you like you cannot believe when you say, God, open my eyes to any way that I could bless someone else.

I'll take that as a note to finish up.

But seriously, if you if you pray that, be ready, because God is, he's got a list.

He's got people around you that need you.

You just haven't realized it yet.

If you live your life and you align your heart with God's heart, you will see ways to bless other people.

It is better to give than to receive.

And so, with all that said, let's be givers.

Let's be generous people.

Let's take God at his word and let's experience it better.

Make sense?

All right, let's pray.

Father God, thank you.

Lord, thank you so much that you give to us.

You give to us.

You're amazing.

My mind right now, God, is just flooded with all the ways that I have seen you give.

And God, you have this amazing way to outdo yourself.

You really do.

You outdo yourself.

You're so generous, you're so kind, you're so patient, you're so loving, and you desire better for us, and you know better than us, Lord.

And I just pray that you would fill every person in this room's heart with a genuine desire to live like you live.

That if we really want better, we would choose what you say is better, and you say it's better to give than to receive.

Help us believe that, help us apply that, God.

Help us walk out of this place today with our hands just just like rubbing together with ideas and ways that we want to go and give of ourselves to other people, to people in need, to all the people around us, to give encouragement, to give prayer, to give hope.

God, to give time, to give energy, to give money, to give whatever it is.

Because it's better to give than to receive.

You say that, that's true, we believe that, Lord.

We love you.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.