From Bags to Barns

I can hear myself. The presence of the Lord is here. Amen. Amen. Did y'all enjoy that praise and worship today?

We don't do bad for a small church, do we? We do pretty good. Amen. God's definitely blessed us with so many things as a small church. Of course, we're a growing church and we're believing for big things.

I just want to make one more quick announcement. And this is one of our biggest times of the year. It's actually turned into like a major event. It was just a minor event before and it turned and just blossomed into a major event. It's our turkey drop.

Our turkey drop is coming in just a few weeks. November 20th. Okay. November 20th. So what this means, if you're new with us, is that we bring in frozen turkeys for those who are in need.

Families in need for Thanksgiving dinner. We do it about a week out from Thanksgiving. And Christina told me that the JCOC, who we work with, called us to make sure we were doing the turkey drop this year. Because they solely depend on us for turkeys. And we're like, oh yeah, we're doing it.

So our goal this year is 250 turkeys. Okay. We broke 200 last year. We want to break 250 this year. Okay.

Y'all are like, oh no, the economy's bad. I know. Just pray about it. Invite other people. If you know business people that want to get involved.

If you're at work and you just let your co-workers know, hey, if you could bring in some turkeys, just give them to me. I'll take them in that Sunday. I believe we can do it. We've done above and beyond what we're capable of doing in the past. And I believe that God can do that once again.

So I'm just believing for that. Exciting time. Not only that, we like to have fun when we do outreaches. So we'll have stuff for the kids. We'll have some stuff set up outside.

We'll have a truck where we actually drop the turkeys, that's why we call it the turkey drop. We're dropping our frozen turkeys. Make sure they're frozen by the way, because we've got to transport them to the JCOC after church. And it might be a little warm that day, who knows. But yeah, we just drop them in the back of the truck and then we will have Dave's Barbecue.

Have y'all eaten Dave's Barbecue before? If you like barbecue, it's some really good barbecue. He's providing that and we partner with him every year on that. And they're doing their part on that, too. So fun times, guys.

So we are beginning a new series called Overflow. Overflow. How many of you want an overflow in your life? Overflow in your life. You want to be absolutely radically blessed.

I don't think anybody would say, I don't want to be blessed. I think everybody wants to be blessed. And this time of year, we always talk about generosity, because we're entering into a season where we're thinking about that. What do we have? What do we want to be blessed?

What do we want to do for others? We're others focused during this time of year. So I always like to bring in a series, try to change it up a bit, go into some other areas and bring out some fresh stuff about generosity and giving and what we have. And everybody wants to be blessed. But happiness is one of those things.

The interesting thing about happiness, everybody's trying to seek happiness, right? And happiness is one of those things that seems to always be hard to get. But when we get it, we can't really keep it. It's hard to keep. It's not an ongoing thing.

And I believe that's because of this issue of contentment. In order to really experience joy, we have to be content in where we are. If we're not, we're always aiming for something bigger, for something better. We're always without, right? We want something more.

We want something bigger. And we'll go into debt for it, right? And then before you even pay it off, you're tired of it already. I mean, halfway through paying it off, maybe even a quarter of a way through paying it off. And God says something different.

There's a counterintuitive thing that God puts in place. It just doesn't make sense. And it's about how to live a blessed life. What does it mean to be blessed? Well, there's a simple scripture in Acts 20, 35.

It says it is more blessed to give than to receive. It is more blessed to give than to receive. And the key to a blessed life is a heart of generosity. If you really want to live a blessed life, you want to feel blessed, if you want to be overflowing with blessing, generosity is the secret, okay? And we're going to learn about that in this series.

Let me just take you to a few scriptures here. Proverbs 11, 24 and 25. And if you're following, you can go to the Bible app, bible.com. If you haven't downloaded that, you can pull it up.

And we have all of our information there. You can type in. If you want to just write things down, you can do that as well. We don't forbid that. That's great.

So Proverbs 11, 24 says this, One man gives freely, yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Now common sense says, if I hold on to what I have, I'll have more. But what he's saying here, those who are generous will actually prosper.

Those who are generous will actually receive more. 2 Corinthians says it like this, Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Again, counterintuitive. It doesn't make sense, right? In God's economy, it's so different than the economy we understand.

And especially living in a time where we are now, it doesn't really make sense because a lot of us are hurting probably financially. We're paying three times the amount we were before on groceries, and everything's gone up. And now, and pastor, you're telling me that God wants us to give? I think God wants me to hold on. But right here he says, whoever sows sparingly, reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will reap generously.

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, okay? It's a heart thing. It's not about the money in your bank account. It's about where your heart is, not reluctantly or under compulsion. So today, I just want to let you know that I'm not trying to seduce you into giving, okay?

I'm not trying to work magic here to make you give. I do not believe in using Scripture to manipulate people in giving. I'm simply presenting what we have here. God loves a cheerful giver. We want to celebrate giving.

We want to be able to walk up here. And I want to do this sometimes, and I don't know if y'all are into this, but I went to a church one time that had buckets in the front or something in the front, and the church would just come up, and everybody was celebrating and praising God as they were giving, just as if it was a big party. And I believe that's how it should be. It should be a big party, not reluctant, not under compulsion, but a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things, in all times, all things, that doesn't just mean your bank account, okay?

It means in every area of your life, in all things, in all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. And you will be made rich in every way, in every way, so that you can be generous in every occasion so I can get blessed, to be a blessing. I just want to continue to be a blessing. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving. So when we do generosity, it ultimately is about God.

When we do things like turkey drops, think about it. 250 turkeys going to 250 families? And then those 250 families praised God, so you got thousands of people praising God at one time because it results in thanksgiving. Oh, thank you Salt Church. No, it's not Salt Church.

This is not our money. This is God's money. This is not our investment. This is God's investment into the computer. We're just simply a medium that works through with God to our community.

This is who we are. We want to give glory to God. We do this to give glory to God because this is what God wants of us. And this is what true generosity is. We want to bless others.

So, in turn, God gets the glory. God gets all the glory. So, if we know that we are more blessed, we see that when we give, why don't we give? Why aren't we more generous? Why is generosity such a hard thing?

Well, I want to give you four different mindsets. And if you're familiar with Pastor Jensen Franklin, he taught this years ago and I read a book on it. And I added a few points and things like that to help out, kind of flavored it in my own way. But it really does come from that. Just a beautiful illustration of what it means to be generous.

But we do have four different mindsets that really are taking place. And the Bible even shows us this. The first mindset that a lot of people are in, it's called the bag. The bag. There's not enough.

I've got my bag. Here's my bag. But it's just not enough. People that believe they don't have enough are in this thing called the bag. Bag mindset.

In fact, we find it here in Scripture. Haggai 1-6 says, You have so much and bring in little. You eat but do not have enough. You drink but you are not filled with drink. You clothe yourself but no one is warm.

And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes. So we're putting into a bag that's just leaking, right? Have you ever felt that way? Like, I just cannot get ahead. I keep putting in.

I'm doing this. I got a raise. But there seems to always be too little to get to where I want to be. It's the hold on to stage that never seems to be enough stage. In fact, Jesus challenges a rich man in Luke, and this isn't in your notes, but he says this, Provide yourself money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth corrupts, right, or destroys.

For where your treasure is, there your heart is also. So he starts off, many of you are familiar with that scripture, but it starts out, Provide yourself money bags which do not grow old. Because what happens when you hold on to what you have, and your money... The bag grows old, it begins to deteriorate. It's not flowing out, it's just staying in.

And you're hoarding it, and the holes come in. And if you hold on long enough to that bag, you're just holding it with every... Eventually it's just going to empty out, right? It's going to empty out. This is the bag mindset.

And Jesus is saying, you need to circulate that money. The bag says, this is mine, this is all mine. And Jesus is like, you know, let that go. Because I want to fill up more. I want to do more with you.

Than just that bag mindset. I think of another story, the alabaster jar. If you're familiar, the woman, this woman comes in and lays at Jesus' feet. She's praying at Jesus' feet. She's crying.

She's rubbing his feet. And she breaks open this very, very expensive, would have been equal to a year's wage, of perfume and pours it on Jesus' feet. What were the disciples thinking? Oh my goodness. We could have used that for ministry.

We could have used that for this. Or we could have done so much with that money. That is a waste. The woman pours out what she has into the body of Jesus. Into the body of Christ.

She pours out on the body of Christ what she has. And they're saying it's a waste. And one of those people were Judas. And what we know about Judas, of course, he betrayed Jesus. He's the bad one, right?

And we all know him by that. But he was also the guy who handled the money backs. He was the guy who took care of the money. And what's interesting is all that complaining about why would this woman waste so much on the body of Christ? Why would she give so much to Jesus?

Just pour it out. Well, just a scripture later, we see Judas betray Jesus for a bag. He betrayed Jesus for a bag of 30 pieces of silver. And we say, oh, that's bad. But we do it all the time.

We betray Jesus all the time because whether it's our finances or whether it's our time. I just don't have enough. I've got to hoard my time. There's just so much going on in life. And some of you are just like drama queens and drama kings about your time.

I'm telling you, you know, you're hoarding that. You're hoarding that. And you're holding on to it. Or your talent. I've got you've got these talents just blistering and God wants you to use them.

But if we hoard them, they become bags. And we have the bag mentality. And people in churches do this all the time. They stay in the bag mentality. And the bag level is always scraping to get by.

As long as you're in the bag level, you're always trying to make it. You're always without. You're always. I'm almost there. And then what happens?

The car breaks down. I'm almost there. And what happens? The AC breaks, right? I'm almost there.

Oh, no, I've got to got to pay for this. Christmas is coming and I got to do this. The AC breaks down. No, no. I don't know.

And you're just always there. So many people are there in the bag mentality. They stay in the bag mentality. But if we can master and learn, hey, even when I don't have enough, I'm going to trust God with my generosity, and I'm going to give even when it feels like I can't give, you're going to see miraculous things happen, and God's going to carry you to the next level, which is called the jar level. The jar level is the just enough level.

There's just enough. And if you've ever been in the bag level, the jar level is a good thing. Amen? I've been in the bag level. And when you start getting into the jar level, you're like, wow, I can actually pay my bills now.

I can take care of my kids. I can get food. I can do all that. But there's just enough. There's always just enough.

We get this idea from 1 Kings. The prophet Elijah is starving because there's a famine all over the land. And God tells him to go to this poor woman in Sarephath and ask her for bread. So he goes down to this town and sees the woman and says, hey, would you make me some bread? I'm starving.

I'm hungry. I'm a prophet of the Lord. I need something to eat. And the woman says, I can't. I can't.

I can't do it. I don't have enough because this is all I have. I have this jar with flour in it and it's enough to make me and my son something to eat. And then after that, we're going to die. So she was in a hopeless place.

She's like, I don't know what to do. I wish I could help you, but I can't. I have just enough. I have just enough for me and my son. That's all I have.

And then the prophet says, don't be afraid. Go ahead and do just what you've said, but make a little bread for me first. So you see a little bit of principle of first fruits here. Make bread for me first, then use what's left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. So she gave first and entrusted God and trusted the prophet of God, the one who was designated as a ministry of God in that time.

She trusted God first and gave Elijah what he asked. And Elijah ended up commanding blessings on her and in this jar. And what what happened is first King 17 six says for the jar of flour was not used up. So every time she went into the jar after that, she she would go in and something miraculous happened. There was more flour, but there was just enough every time.

Every time she went to that jar the next day, there was just enough flour. There's just enough flour to make bread. She'd invite friends over, you know, says, hey, look at this. This is cool. Just enough for all of us.

Just enough. You know, no, that wasn't there before. It's empty now. Come back tonight. Look, come on, let's feed.

It's just enough. Just enough. And God just kept pouring out more and more on her, giving her just enough. He miraculously provided for and what she did. It was a wonderful day.

It was something that he did. She could say to those, that people would be like, what in the world? How is that happening? You are, you know, I can, all I can tell you is Jehovah Jireh, my provider. He provides for me.

Amen. He gives me everything I need. He gives me all that I need, and I can trust Him. And I gave my first, and I gave what I could, and God provided for me. So, let me just say this.

Maybe you're in a place, maybe you're in this place where you've been given, being generous. And we can always be tempted to say, you know, I'm starting a new business, and maybe I need to hold back from giving for a little while. Or I've just entered in a new marriage, we're trying to get going, and maybe I'll hold back for a little bit. Or, you know, I'm starting a new job. I'm telling you, God wants you to be, He's trying to carry you to new levels.

He's trying to get you to trust Him. He wants to carry you to other stages. And if you can really change the mindset that I don't want to just be in the enough level, I don't want to just be in the jar level. He wants to carry us to even another level. And if we're faithful in that level, because if we're faithful in one level, He's going to carry us to other levels, right?

He will carry us to the next level, and that's the basket level. There's more than enough. And many people don't really make it here. But I'm sure, you know, my prayer is that all of us are here more than enough. That we have more than enough.

That we're actually seeing margins now. We're actually seeing our bank accounts mean something, right? They're not just blank. They're not just zeros. We're actually making something.

That's why Deuteronomy 28 says, blessed shall be your basket. That's where that comes from. The idea of a basket is an overflowing thing. You know, like you have plenty. That's what a basket meant.

I think of the story in the Gospels of Jesus teaching the 5,000, and everybody was hungry, and this... He wanted to feed the people. He says, where's food? All there was was this one little boy with a lunchbox, basically. This little lunchbox and thermos, and he walks up, right?

He's got just a few fish and some loaves of bread, and what happens? Jesus says, I'll take it, and he has what he needs, right? He has everything that he needs. He has just enough, but he takes that just enough, and he says, I'm going to give this to Jesus. He gives it to Jesus.

What does Jesus do? Jesus blesses it and breaks the bread. He sends it around to all the people there, and 5,000 men. There's probably... It wouldn't be too hard to say that there were 20,000 people there if you count kids and women.

20,000 people, and they're all fed and content. But it doesn't stop there because God's such a good God. He wants to bless people when they are generous, and this little boy was generous, and he gave his little lunchbox to Jesus, and what does Jesus do? Jesus tells the disciples to go out and collect the bread up, and what happens? We just know that even God has given him a amount of smart, and not just God has Nicholas.

Twelve baskets of bread were given back. There was more. More came back to them. And God wants to do that. God loves blessing people that are generous.

He loves to see you just flourish in prosperity when we're generous. He wants us to be generous, and that's the basket mentality. Deuteronomy 8.18 says, But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth. And so, confirms His covenant, which He swore to His ancestors, and it is today.

Why do we think that way? Why do we want to think that way? Because we remember where our wealth comes from. We know where our wealth comes from. He gives us, it's not ours, it's not mine.

In the basket mentality, we start to realize that, hey, it's not mine. God gave me the ability. He gave me the talents. When anyone says, well, I did this, I did that, that's a red flag for me, you know. Like, you didn't really do that.

Yeah, you did do it, but who gave you the ability to do that? Who gave you the intelligence to do that? Who gave you the skill to do that? You didn't just work for it. God gave you gifts so that you had the ability.

All wealth comes from God because God owns it all, and let's not forget that. In the basket level, you don't forget that. Luke 6 talks about this, and let me just say this. It just says a little thing here. You've heard people use these scriptures and use these giving scriptures to kind of convince people to give.

You know the prosperity pastors that are out there, you know. If you give, you'll receive. If you give, you'll receive. Just put your seed in, and you'll get it back like this amount, promise, guaranteed. That's not us, okay?

We believe that God wants to pour back into us, but we're not promising you fivefold, tenfold. However, I promise you God will bless you, and God will do things far beyond what you're capable of doing. And that's why I go to this scripture. Given it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing. See, the basket is overflowing.

It overflows. Now, the context of this isn't necessarily financial, okay? The context of this, if you see the scriptures before that, when you're leading up to the scripture, judge, or you'll be judged, right? The judgment will be given back to you if you judge someone else. If you condemn someone else, that condemnation will be given back to you overflowing, right?

Forgive, and forgiveness will be given back to you. You can use this in any area, but this does apply to generosity as well. When we give, it returns back to us, overflowing, pressed out. Now, what does this mean? What does this mean?

In context, if there was a master of a field, say a farmer, who owned land, and he produced a lot of crops, Since there are thousands of crops, that are frankly速ic forests. You can use a lot of crops! He hired a lot of people, and there was day wagers that would come in, and they'd work all day, and they'd collect their wage. So as any good day wager that's being paid by the day or by the hour, they're gonna probably milk the clock a little bit. So they're just pouring all they can into the basket real quick, and they take the basket out, and they go, you know, and they're just trying to load up as many baskets of wheat, grain, corn as they possibly can, as much crop as they possibly can.

But at the end of the day, and this is what's beautiful about the master that we have, the master came out at the end of the day, the master of the field, the farmer, the boss, whatever you want to call them, and allowed people who were either poor or in need or needed food to eat that week, they would come out into the field, and they'd begin to gather from the field all the access that was left on the field. And not only would these people fill up their baskets, they would shake their baskets. What happens when you shake a basket, right? It goes down to the bottom, makes a little more room, press it down a little bit, right? Press it down, I'm gonna add more, shake it down, press it down.

And this method was used in a lot of areas, in cells and practices, even in that culture. It was a very common thought, the press down, shaking together, and overflowing, trying to get as much as you need. That's the beauty of our master, that they were benefiting from the master. We benefit from the master, amen? The wages, they wagers go in and do their thing, but when we are generous and we give, we'll be given back, overflowing.

When we don't judge, we will be, you know, taken care of, right? When we forgive, when we don't condemn, every area of our lives. So that's the basket mentality. We see that in the basket mentality. And this is the level where you say, you know what?

My family is taken care of and I'm taken care of. In the jar mentality, you were like, you know, you're trying to take care of your family, trying to take care of you. But now you're like, I have more than enough. I can start making a difference in my community. I can start giving more time to this or that.

You know, I want to make a difference. I want to be more kingdom-minded. I'm going to be more kingdom-minded. I'm not going to think about myself. I'm going to think about others.

This is where that happens. It goes from the jar to the basket. And this is a great place to be. And it's getting really fun to be generous at this point. But there is another level.

And very few actually make it to this level. But it's available. And that's the barn level. That I have infinitely, infinitely more than enough. I have way more than I could ever need.

Not only can I take care of my family. And I can pay all my bills. I've got all kinds of stuff set up now. I am taking care for the rest of my life. If I give away most of my money, I'm taken care of.

But this is the barn level. There is infinitely more than enough people. There is infinitely… ... So much more than you could ever need and ever possibly imagine. And I pray that all of us would enter this stage.

I'm thinking that way. I'm not there yet, but I'm thinking, mentality-wise, being at the barn level. Imagine just being able to do whatever you needed to do to help people. Imagine walking into a Starbucks and grabbing one of those cards out there. By the way, our Random Acts of Kindness season is coming.

Guys, go ahead and start grabbing some cards. We have them all year long, but we start pushing them during this time of year. Imagine just going into the Starbucks or your favorite coffee place and just throwing, you know, $500. Say, bless everybody that comes in. When you're out with people, you can just cover the meal.

It doesn't really matter. You know, help people in different ways, pay bills or whatever. You can just set up businesses, nonprofits, and do all these things to help communities, to help the world, because you're so kingdom-minded, because you have infinitely more than enough. Now, if you have more than enough, Deuteronomy 8 says, the Lord will send blessings on your barns and on everything you put to your hands. So when you're faithful with the bag and the jar and the basket, God begins to way, way, way overflow your barns.

Think about Joseph for a minute. This is where we get this concept from. Joseph went from the pit to the palace. And in the pit, he was faithful. In the prison, he was faithful.

And ultimately, God gave him honorable, an honorable place. But God didn't just give him that honorable place. He trusted Joseph in each part of his life. Joseph was promoted to the second highest in the land, probably in the world in that time. But Joseph knew his purpose.

He knew why he was there, because there was this famine that was over the whole region. Nations were being affected by this famine. And Joseph had stored up crop. He had stored up grain. He had stored up for years to prepare for this, because God had given him a vision, given him wisdom of what was to come.

And because Joseph was who he was, he didn't stop being generous. He extravagantly, he was living at a barn level. He could change nations. He began, the nations began to come in and collect from Egypt because they were starving. He was able to bless people.

They would literally put, he would have people put grain and crop in rivers, in bends and rivers, and send them downstream to different nations so that they could eat. He was blessing the whole region. He was blessing the whole world. And I believe that God wants some barn people. Amen?

How many of you want to be barn people where you can make a difference? You can really make a difference. You don't, you can change cities. You can change cultures, even. You have influence and power.

This is where you have influence and power. And God wants to entrust this type of influence and power to those who are faithful to him. He has that available for us. Imagine, imagine saying, man, Salt Church needs a building. I'm going to make sure it happens tomorrow, right?

Cut the check right now. Wouldn't that be awesome to be able to do that so we won't have to worry about internet issues and stuff like that? I mean, you know, and then we could bless others. It's not even just about our church. It's about other churches.

We could start helping other churches. Because I want us to be a barn mentality church where we can bless other ministries. We can plant other churches. We can help people in missions. We're supporting missionaries right now at the level we are.

And we want to do more. And we want to be able to affect the city. We want to be able to affect the region. We want to be used for the glory of God because we want to be extravagantly. We don't want to just have just to have.

We don't want to have wealth just to have wealth. We want this wealth, this blessing to be a blessing to others. We don't want to hold. We don't want to hoard. We don't want to have a bag mentality.

We want to live a legacy. We want to make Jesus famous. We want the world to know about Jesus. We want to transform places and cultures. We want to do that in Jesus' name.

Barn mentality. Do we have a barn mentality? So how much does God really want to bless us? Some of you ask. Does he really want to bless me?

More than you think. More than you think. And if you're faithful where you are, God will promote you to new levels. In fact, we see it here in Luke 16, 10 and 11. Jesus says, Whoever can be trusted with very little, the bag, can also be trusted with much, the barn.

But whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. And in verse 11 he says, So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? How can you be trusted with true riches if you can't even handle this temporary earthly wealth? Proverbs says it like this in chapter 3. It says, verse 9.

Honor the Lord with your wealth. With the first fruits of all your crop. Then your barns will be filled overflowing. It tells us right there. Trust God.

But why do we not trust God? Fear. Fear of economy. Fear of all that's going on around us. But God has not given us a spirit of fear.

He's given us a spirit of power and sound mind and love. And if we fill ourselves with love, power, and a sound mind, we are able to do things that we don't even know we're able to do. Does he want to bless you more than you think? He wants to carry you to barn levels. And you know what breaks the grip of materialism?

Giving. If you start to notice that you're falling into materialistic ways, I've got to have, I've got to have more, I want to buy another house, another car, another this. and a guy who doesn't have to flip him and ask a lady to put this into this. And he wants to take it to this All because you just want it, and just throwing money out there, how do you break that spirit off of you? You begin to give.

You think of others. You give away stuff. Grab that new pair of Jordans off your shelf, you know, and just give it to somebody, right? Because you've got ten of them already in your closet. Do something.

There's something special because he who refreshes others is also refreshed. If you want to be refreshed, if you want to break the bondage of materialism, that's how that works. So we go from Barn Blessings, Barn Blessings. And we can be in the backstage. Don't think just because you're in the backstage doesn't mean you can't think mentality, Barn Mentality.

Because God has envisioned to take you to the barn. He wants to take you to the barn. And in closing, I took a trip to Africa a while back. Actually, before I started the church. And we did a conference there, a pastoral conference.

And it was amazing. We were in Nairobi. And honestly, we didn't have a whole, we weren't like, you know, a professional ministry or anything. We just had, we were just pastors coming together. My father was teaching on how to care for your family and pastoral needs.

And we had others teaching on how to present messages and how to connect with the culture. And we were just doing a lot, you know, kids ministry and all that. It was just a conference there in Africa. And people were like coming in from everywhere. Congo and Ethiopia.

I mean, they were coming. You would think we were Reinhard Bunkie or something, you know. They were just coming in. Like, we're here to learn. And we're here to grow.

And we want to really connect with our communities. They understood that there was a need in their world. And they were willing to go hundreds of miles. Some of them on foot. Like, took a week journey.

Didn't have any money. They don't have money. They don't have anything. I mean, five dollars out of your pocket can cover them for a month. You know.

You probably have the ability to put money in somebody's hand that would take care of them for the rest of their life. Right in your pocket. I mean, that's how poor they are. But one of the coolest things I ever saw with giving was this man. This man comes in.

And he walks up to me and my father. And we're there. And he's smiling from cheekbone to cheekbone. I mean, he's got this big, white, pearly smile. He walks in.

And he's just so excited to do something. He says, thank you, guys. Thank you so much. He was tattered. He didn't have much.

He had really poor clothes on. And he had come from a community many, many, many miles away. But he wanted to give my father something. And he pulls out this. This cap, this ball cap, this old, it looked old, it's actually newer, and it's new, he bought it, but he wanted to give it to Dad, and it just meant so much for him, and that was probably a month's wage that he paid for that hat, I mean, that's how poor these people, but he wanted to give it to him, and he was just so, so, so excited, it was, he was a cheerful giver.

He was being a cheerful giver, he was willing to go out of his way to do that, a guy who couldn't, we were like, no, we didn't want to take the hat, we would rather him sell it and take care of himself, but he, you don't refuse that, even the missionaries, don't refuse those things, these people, they want to give these things to you, they're cheerful givers, they love to give, they're happier, they experience happiness more than we do, just in simple acts of kindness. They have a heart of generosity. My question is, I come back just challenged, you know, like, like, these people, they don't have nothing, but they're giving, it reminded me of the Macedonian church that didn't have anything, and Paul congratulates them because they wanted to give, and they wanted to give more, and they were just a bunch of poor people, they couldn't give, and Paul was like, don't give anymore. They were like, no, no, we want to, don't keep us from giving, we want to give, we want to give, we want to give, we want to give, and he just praised them because they were so blessed, and they just enjoyed it. Imagine a church, imagine a community that had that heart, the things that we could do together, not just finances, you know, we're talking about, some of this is about finances, most of this is about, you know, how we, our wealth and things like that, but it's more than just wealth, it's everything, it's everything.

Because really what it comes down to, that God's a generous God, and he doesn't want a church that isn't generous like him, I mean, he wants us to be generous, and he wants to bless us, he's incredibly generous God, in fact, he's so generous, that he gave his son, we don't need anything else, right? When we see that, he gave his son, he gave, the father sent his son, and Jesus comes down to earth, he becomes man, and he doesn't become a Pharisee, he doesn't become a king, he becomes a carpenter from Nazareth, wasn't seen as anything right, but that was purposeful, because he humbled himself. The king of kings laid down his crown, because he was so generous, and we didn't deserve it, but he gave his life, and when I think about that, I don't know what can I give, and we sing that song, you know, as we were opening up this. The hallelujah's all I can give. And that's all God desires.

God doesn't, doesn't, God wants to use you, but you know, He really just cares about you. And if you're here today and you haven't made God a part of your life, or you're here today, or maybe you've walked away from God, maybe it's time to return to Him. Wherever you are, wherever you are, just, just make a confession. In fact, we'll do this together as a church during this time. And maybe you are a believer and maybe you're okay with God, but maybe it's time for you to step out a little more and trust God and stop living in fear.

Start living in hope and promise that God wants to do so much more with your life. Don't limit yourself to the bad. So let's pray this together. Father, I thank you, God, that you are a God of generosity. And I thank you that you gave your Son on the cross for my sin.

If you're here today with all heads bowed and eyes closed, just, just say this with me. Say this with me. Say this with me. Father, I believe that you are the Son of God and that you died on the cross for my sin. That you paid the most generous contribution yourself so that I could be saved when I wasn't worthy of it.

So today I give my life to you. I make you Lord of my life. Come into my heart. Lord, make me a new creation. And for those who are, who are walking with God, but God, I pray that, that, that you would just bring us to new places and new levels that we would have a barn mentality, not just a bag mentality, but a barn mentality, Lord, that we would see potential, that we would see opportunities for generosity, that we would, we would take advantage of those opportunities with whatever we can possibly do, whatever we possibly have so that we can see the good works happen and you'd be glorified in the process, Lord, as we enter into this Thanksgiving season, thinking about Thanksgiving.

We thank you. And what more can we do, not only to give ourselves, but give everything that we have to you. Thank you, Jesus, Lord, your grace and your mercy. And we ask this in your name. Amen.

Can y'all give God a hand clap of praise. Just praise his name. I don't want to enter. I don't want to, I don't want y'all to exit this place all, oh, you know, down. I want you to be up and spirit filled people that, that want to change this world.

Uh, barn mentality people that want to be influencers and want to make a difference. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. So right directly after service, if you would just stay with us for a minute as we, um, baptize Nicholas, who is here in the front today, we want to, we want to celebrate that with him.

I would love for all of y'all to gather around. Let's do this together. It's just a big celebration. My wife's going to close us out here. She, she, she forgot, I think, or maybe, maybe I didn't communicate that way.

She's going to close us out real quick. My lovely bride. We're always on the same wavelength. There's no forgetting. It's just, you know, the Holy Spirit wanted me to be late.

So thank you everybody for being here. Again, I hate that we weren't able to stream live online, but if you see people or know people who want to see the service, let them know. We will try to get a recording up later because I think this is a really important message series that we all need, especially in this season. As you probably know, we don't pass around buckets or baskets or anything like that, but you can give to Salt Church if you would like to for our ministries locally and, of course, through the rest of the state, the country, and the world with everything that we do. If you are brand new and visiting for the first time, please don't feel compelled to give at all.

We just want the service to be a blessing and a gift to you. If you're a regular attender, there are a couple ways that you can give. You can text the amount you want to give to 84321. You can sign up to give in a recurring, safe, secure manner via the Church Center app, or you can even just mail something in to our PO box. And, of course, you can always just drop something in the box on your way out.

Thank you so much for that. Everybody have a wonderful, wonderful week, and let's celebrate this baptism together. All membersrain us to speak to you today! Thank you so much for sharing your name here!