Intentional Generosity

Hello Salt Church, how are you doing today? Didn't that intro music just make you want to go to sleep after a heavy turkey day? Most of you are still kind of recovering from that. But, man, generosity.

We've been in a series called Generosity and, you know, one part of that is, you know, our thankfulness. The reason we're generous is because of our thankfulness. And today I want to honor one of the sacraments we that we do in this church is baby dedications. We believe in dedicating babies to the Lord. And Eric and Arthur are bringing Ellie Sue Hammond to us today to dedicate this precious child to the Lord.

Look at her. Isn't she precious? Little Ellie. The reason we honor this, there's many different church traditions that do a lot of different things in honoring and dedicating their children to the Lord. But we see this throughout the Bible.

Number one, Samuel was dedicated to the high priest after Hannah pleaded with God to have a child. She said, if you give me a child, Lord, I will dedicate that child to you. And she took and committed her child to the ministry, to the work of the priesthood in the Old Testament. Also, our Lord and Savior was dedicated in the temple when he was born. Just a few months after he was born, Mary and Joseph went to the temple and was met by Simeon, the priest.

And he dedicated Jesus to the Lord and even prophesied over him that he would be a great minister, a high priest who would shake the world by what God had placed on him. And today we're going to do the same thing with Eric and Arthur and little Ellie here. First of all, I want to talk to the parents for a minute. You do realize, and I'm sure you do, how special a gift a child is. Oh, she's getting cranky here.

I know it's early. It's early for a little baby. It's hard for a little baby up on stage. But there's a lot of challenges that come with mother and fatherhood, as you know. And I'm sure you've experienced already with your firstborn.

But it's important that we focus on our responsibility as parents. That we take in our children and we raise them in the way of the Lord. In fact, it says, raise your child in the way they should go and they will not depart from it. What that's talking about is their abilities, their skills, what they were designed and destined to be. As parents, we want them to be followers of Christ, pursuing their passion, pursuing their promises.

And you are a part of the mission. God has placed, this is a gift from God. God has placed in your hands that God has put for you. It's a great responsibility. Great responsibility.

So I ask you today, as parents, are you willing to raise this child in a way that honors God? Are you willing to commit that in the teaching of the Word of God and in the rearing of the family and to bring them into the church, into the fellowship, so that they can grow and mature in Christ and one day be a disciple, a devoted follower of Christ? Would you agree with me with that today? And church, would you agree with me today? It takes a village, right?

Popular saying. It takes a village to raise a child. Would you come together with us in raising this child in the ways of the Lord and honoring Him? Would you join me in celebrating the wins and being there for the losses and picking them up and helping them as parents and encouraging them to grow? Would you agree with me on that today?

Would you, church? Amen. Amen. Amen. So I'm going to try to do this here.

I'm going to take little Ellie here. She's good. She's good. Church, let's pray together over Ellie. Father, in the name of Jesus, what a precious gift.

What a precious gift. What a precious gift you've given us, Lord. I pray in the name of Jesus that your Holy Spirit would guide Ellie, that you would be with her through hardships, through the thick and thin, Lord, throughout her life, Lord, that you would be a compass, a guiding north star in her life, Lord, that you would use her parents and her grandparents to help nurture, guide her, and lead her in the ways of the Lord, Lord. I pray that you would give her dreams and give her visions of things to come as she grows in your spirit and in her walk with you, Lord, and as her relationship blooms, and that you would protect her, Lord Jesus, that you would be that mighty fortress that God, that, that, that so nurtures her and carries her along the way, Lord. And Jesus, you would reveal yourself to her.

And when that day comes, when she has the opportunity to make that decision to be yours, Lord, that day when her parents release her to make her own decisions, that she would follow you, that she would give her life and her heart to you. And carry her life mission and your purpose. We love you and we thank you, Lord. We pray that your Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit would just set upon her life. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Y'all celebrate. Y'all celebrate. Amen. Hallelujah.

Give them a hand clap. Come on, one more time. Come on, church. Amen. So good to be here today, guys.

I know it was hard to get. I know we got a lot of family still traveling and people are about and out and around. And some of them probably just have stomach aches and didn't make it this morning. Who knows? It's always one of those years we have to repent a little bit after the day.

But I just want to celebrate a little bit. Guys, I really, gosh, I'm so thankful for our opportunities here in our community. And first of all, I want to thank all the volunteers that came out on Thanksgiving and were a part of Java Surf's Serve Day. I just thank you guys. I think we had about 26 volunteers to come out throughout the day.

We were just, it was great. Come on, guys. What is up with the hand clapping? Come on. I want to hear some hand clapping.

Celebrate the people who took their time to come out and help. Yeah. Yeah. It was just amazing. We had so many stories.

It was, I mean, just looking at the people that were coming in. There was an older gentleman that came in. He was probably one of the first ones through the door. And I could just tell. You can tell.

I didn't know his story or anything. But you knew that he was, he probably didn't have anywhere to go on Thanksgiving. And he came through the door and I think he was just going to buy himself a cup of coffee and come in and hang out and do some, you know, some crossword puzzles or something like that because he had his little book and stuff. But he was, I was like, oh, you're here for our Thanksgiving feast? And he's like, what are you talking about?

He's like, yeah, we've got free meals here. We've got free coffee. And he was like, oh, okay. Yeah. He was just excited.

He went over and he hung out for a while. And we had some, you know, single fathers come through with their kids that were getting ready to ship their kids off to other places. And they got to come in and enjoy a free Thanksgiving meal. We had a family that actually was out of town. In fact, for the last four years, they travel out of town.

So they haven't had a Thanksgiving meal in four years. And they came walking in because we were the only place open around the area. And they thought they were going to buy them a little, you know, cafe meal or whatever. And we had a whole set up for them, you know, ham, turkey. They were kind of one of the last families to come in.

And they were just, they even wanted to pay. Do we need to, do we tip you or pay you or, or no, no, it's all on us. This is just a blessing. And the wife was actually tearing up a little bit, you know, talking about being able to have an actual Thanksgiving meal. And we were able to provide just about all the food and the help serving.

And it was just a blessing for us to be a part of that. So thank you, all of you that came out. I'm just looking forward. I think we saw well over 100 people come through that day. I didn't get a, I get a total count.

I want to say about anywhere from 130, 150 people came through to have a Thanksgiving meal on us and Java surf. Amen. Also last week, 65 turkeys, guys. 65 turkeys. Yeah.

That's amazing. It's amazing. I know our goal was 125, but I can't complain about 65, guys. I mean, for a church our size, that's a really, really good generosity campaign. And it was funny, we pulled up the Java surf, Java surf, JCOC to deliver the turkeys.

And we also had, you know, a box full of food from the non-perishables you guys sent. And we were, we walked in there and she pulls out this shopping cart. And she said, yeah, just load them up. I said, we're going to need more than that. You know, we've got a lot more.

So we pull up that shopping cart. She comes out with another one. Okay. Was this going to work? I said, no, we're going to need more than that.

So we filled up three shopping carts full. And I don't even think we got the, I think we still had more and had to set them out on the table. And, and then she says, she was just grinning from ear to ear. She just could not believe that we had so many turkeys. I think she was thinking maybe 10, 15 turkeys from our church.

No, we were coming in there with a lot of turkeys. And then on top of that, I said, we're not done. We, we have a box full of non-perishables for you too, because you guys have been generous through the month of October and dropped a lot of, a lot of supplies in there as well. And, and, uh, she's like, really, really, are you serious? Are y'all going to, what else y'all have out there?

You know, she's looking around cause we're, we're pulling in all kinds of stuff. And, uh, I was looking at their table over there. It was kind of up against the wall and that like a quarter of the table had food on it. And, uh, there really wasn't a lot there and it was just a few days before Thanksgiving. I'm sure they were going to have more come in at what, but we brought that, that food in.

And I mean, the whole table was like filled up with, with food. So, uh, they were just super excited. I don't think they, they expected us to come through that way, but man, you showed yourself strong, Salt Church. So thank you so much for all of you who contributed to their, our, our turkey drop. Amen.

Um, I'm looking forward to next year. We're going to beat that goal. We're going to go, we're going to go further and further and further with this. Um, uh, we're going to, we're going to, one day we're going to be able to ride hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of turkeys. I know we are.

Amen. Um, also for those of you who are leading a small group for next semester, we're finishing up our small groups. This is actually, we're going into our last week of small groups and then we're finished for the fall semester. And then we pick up again in the spring semester. Um, uh, our spring semester is actually in the winter, but it ends, uh, it starts around January 28th.

And then we have like a, uh, a 12 week, three month stint. So if you're either interested in hosting or planning on hosting, or if you are teaching or whatever, we have a small group host the host that we're doing for two weeks in December. And we want, we want to challenge you guys to come out to this. If you're, you're planning on doing that, whether you're already doing a small group or, or at least for one of these nights, not if you can't go to both of them. I understand Christmas is really busy.

We really want you to go to both of them, but if you can at least make one of them, uh, we would really appreciate that. What we want to do is just, is just kind of show you and host you and how, how to, and show you kind of practically how to host a small group and give you some biblical principles for, for leading a small group. And we want to really launch some, we want to get to the next level with our small groups because small groups for our church are so important. In our small group you may have a few things that are continually important for us, like with our. Okay.

This is where. We're, you know, spiritual growth happens and physical growth happens because we're growing together, we're inviting people in, we're opening the doors to our house, and if we're not doing it out there, then there's no need to do it in here, right? Amen? We need to be out doing it together. We need to be doing life together.

So that will happen on the 4th and the 11th, and those are Monday nights at 630, and that will be at Chris and Christy Scott's house. If you don't know who they are, Chris was the guy up on stage here. And they were willing to open up their homes, and they're going to lead a small group next semester as well. And come on out and enjoy some time together. We're going to do small group for those two weeks.

So, also, on the 10th, that's the Sunday the 10th, that's a couple weeks away, the kids' environment is starting a, are you familiar with the Star movie that came out just recently? You know, it's in the theaters, it came out the last few weeks. It's a cute cartoon movie about, kind of themed around the nativity and things like that. It's kind of funny and creative. And they're doing a curriculum, and they're starting a curriculum.

So, after church on the 10th, we don't have a time yet because the showings aren't, aren't posted yet for the 10th. But that afternoon, that Sunday, we're going to go out. If you have kids, or if you're just a big kid, and you want to go with us and watch the Star movie, we're just going to go as a group together and see the Star movie, you know, with our kids. And just kind of relate it to, to their curriculum. It's going to be amazing.

So, so make plans for that, families. Make plans for that. And then the 17th, we're going to have a little kids thing here, right here on our stage, which will be fun. Tim and Christy have been planning some stuff for our kids. And also, if some of you are wondering about Christmas Eve, our Christmas Eve service, what is that going to be like?

Well, we're doing that, obviously, Sunday morning, because Sunday morning is our normal time. And thank goodness it's on Sunday this year. And I know a lot of you travel and stuff, but we're going to have it Sunday morning, 10.30 regular time. And we're not going to have the kids service that day, except for the nursery.

And then we're going to bring everybody together in here. We're going to have candlelight. We're going to have, we're going to have some, some party themes and stuff like that. We're going to have some fun stuff for the kids to do. We're going to have gifts for the kids.

We're going to have hot chocolate. We're going to have, I mean, it's going to be cool. Okay, guys. And also, this is, I know this is your favorite part. We're going to have pictures.

Okay, we're going to have family pictures. Okay, I got one hand clap. Woo! Welcome to Salt Church, you know. My one fan.

So, that'll be on the 24th, Christmas Eve, the 24th. So, we're going to have some invite cards ready for you next week. And that'll be an opportunity for you to invite people. Well, did you know that that sometimes is the only time you can get somebody in church the whole year? We call them Christers, you know, Christ, Christmas Easter people.

But this might be your only opportunity to get your loved one in church this year. So, we're going to have plenty of seats. We want to pack out this place, and we want as many people to come in and know Jesus as possible. You know, give them an opportunity to meet the Savior of the world. The reason we celebrate this season, because of the redemptive work of God through His child, Jesus Christ, who He sent into the world.

Isn't that amazing that we get the opportunity to do that in the Christmas season? Amen. Okay, we're in our final deal. Week four. I know I made a typo and put week three in our notes.

I blame my wife. She's my editor. Yeah. But we're actually in week four, not week three, and we're finishing up our series on Live Generously. And it's been a great series, and you guys have actually, I've seen some up in the giving, and I've seen some ups in our generosity campaigns and things like that.

And, you know, I'm thrilled. Maybe this is working. You know, the Bible actually makes sense, I guess, right? When we talk about things like this. And I know you feel the joy, and you feel the blessings when we are blessing others.

The blessings come. The blessings flow. And we have many testimonies of that. Proverbs 22, 9 says, He who has a generous eye will be blessed. And today I want to talk about a generous eye, having a generous eye.

A lot of us can have an eye for something. Maybe you have an eye for talent. You can spot somebody who's a musician, or somebody who's an actor, or somebody who's a football player, future football player. Maybe you have an eye for that. You're like a talent scout or something like that.

Or maybe you have an eye for food. Maybe you're really good with food. Yeah, amen to that. Yeah. Good food.

I know how to pick out good food, right? Some of you have an eye for food, and some of you have an eye for fashion. Y'all know what fashion's like. Some of you have no clue about fashion, because I see how you dress when you walk into the building, and somebody helped that person, you know? But some of us do have an eye for fashion, and some of us have an eye for creativity.

Thank goodness for our creative team here that does things like this, because we wouldn't look so good if we didn't have people who did stuff like that. Some of you have an eye for creativity. I'm going to pick on Matt for a minute, because he's probably my biggest critic about graphics and stuff like that. But, man, I can't do anything. I think I got the perfect graphic, and I send it to him, and he says, this is not good.

This is not that, you know? Yeah. So, because he has an eye for creativity, especially when it comes into the graphics category. Maybe you have an eye for decor. You know, you have an eye for putting the right things in your house, in the right places, and you just have an eye for that.

But what if we had an eye for generosity? What if we had that eye where we could spot ways, just like that, for generosity, to be generous to others? And what that means is intentional generosity. That's what I want to talk about today, intentional generosity, being intentional about being generous to others. In the book of Luke, we see this spoken by Jesus.

He says, give, and it will be given to you. And I talked about this in the first week. I'm not going to go into detail on this. Give, and it will be given to you, a good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over, and will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

And that doesn't necessarily just mean financially, guys. We use that for financial. Title giving and things like that, but that's for your entire life. Your friendships, your family, your environment, your job, all the things in life. God wants to bless you in those areas and He's given us a pattern for generosity in order that we can receive blessings back.

It is more blessed to give than to receive, as we talked about a few weeks ago. It doesn't mean that it's financially, it means much more than that. It would be returned in blessing. But here's the thing, the enemy wants to hinder that pattern. The enemy wants to hurt that pattern and he'll do anything to hurt that pattern.

And there's two things I want to talk about today, two wrong responses that kind of get in our head when we think about generosity. The first one is pride. The first one is pride. It's Revelation 317 says it best. You say, I am rich, I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing, but you do not realize that you are wretched.

You are pitiful, you are poor, you are blind, and you are naked. This is the man that says, I don't need God because I'm rich. I picked myself up by my bootstraps, I've made my business work. I do. I got it.

I worked for my own job. When God's actually the one that gives us everything we have and gives us the opportunity. And John says that people like this are wretched. They are pitiful. They are poor.

They were blind. And they are naked because they've forgotten where their good things had come from. It's a spirit of entitlement. Entitlement. I deserve.

I should have. Because I work and I do. And we don't doubt that you work hard for what you have. All of you work hard. We're hard-working Americans, right?

We live in an American working society where we do it and we make our way. But we have the spirit of pride. And even people who don't have much can have that same pride about them. If I had what he had, I would use it for this. How many of you have done that?

You don't raise your hand. You don't have, okay, raise your hand then. Okay, hello. If I was, you know, had all the money they had, then I would be more generous. And I would, and I would do more.

I can't believe he's blowing it on all those cars or, or all those surfboards or all those, that big house. They don't really need that big of a house. If I had all that money, I would just get a small house with, you know, just a few bedrooms and, and I would, I would do more. So, so pride can affect us on both sides of the house. So we deal with the spirit of pride with generosity.

And then there's another one called shame. Our second blank there is shame. Some people are shamed when they're financially healthy and wealthy and rich. Shame, they're, they're embarrassed. They feel guilty about what they have.

Genesis 32 says, and Jacob prayed, O Lord, who said to me, I will make you prosper. That's the Lord makes us prosper, right? And I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. Sometimes we feel unworthy. God gives us and we feel unworthy.

So, so we look at both sides of these things and I, and, and just as an example, we may compliment something about, you know, a shirt. Say, let's just say it's, it's a shirt or clothing or whatever. Here's what the prideful person would say. Say, well, that's a nice shirt, brother. I like that shirt.

Yeah, it's Laura Piana. I know you don't know what that means. Don't get it at Barney's, you know, or my smitten, my smitten wallet, you know, I think that's how you pronounce that, right, Brenda? Smiteson. See, I don't even know.

My smiteson wallet. The Queen of England get, you know, makes her purses out of, you know, that's what the prideful person would say. They would just kind of, kind of, nobody can get this, you know. And they, let me just stop. I actually did a little, a little Google search just to see some, just to show some expensive items here that, that people typically wear.

And I think about Jeff Foxworthy. You might be a redneck. I mean, is that like, I'll date these days. I still love Jeff Foxworthy, you know. I love him.

And, and, uh, you might be too rich and proud if you wear this item. I need a screen here. A nice jean outfit here and some matching shoes. Nice style, huh? Who's ready to wear that?

How many of you would admit that's kind of ugly? But if you're rich, you're probably proud of it because that jean outfit is about $500. And the shoes themselves, the bedroom shoe looking things are about $550. So if you're walking in with that outfit, you might be a little proud. How about the next one?

How many of you like Crocs? If you get some Crocs and put a little mud on it and put a little, little, little rocks and maybe, maybe pay some rocks on it or something like that, you might get these things. And you might be a little, little proud of your riches if you pay $280 for these things, which is what they cost. Only at Barney's. Only at Barney's.

How about this next one? Hello. Guess what? That actually is an expensive shirt. Not quite as expensive as the shirt says, but get this, this shirt online.

No kidding. It was $830. $830. You might be a little proud, a little rich of your pride, of your, of your wealth if, if you are wearing one of these shirts. Now women, this is, this is a great one.

Women, this is what you want. Okay. Here you go. Yeah. I could totally, yeah.

Miranda's gonna wear it next week. No, she's not because when she looks at the price tag of this thing, $1,400. $1,400 for this nice pink pantsuit, right? Whatever it is. How about this next one, guys?

I mean, if you're looking to dress like a cow, there you go. There you go. How about this nice coat here, guys? How many of you are willing to wear that? I mean, I don't even know what that is, necessarily.

I thought it was a cow. I mean, it looks like cow spots to me, but that coats about $2,000, $2,000, $2,000, there you go, $2,000. Now, this next one here, this looks a little more normal, you know? Yeah, that's kind of cool, that's kind of hip, it looks like something you can buy at Walmart, you know? You got nice patches on there, maybe even like Macy's or something like that, but it has this name on it called Gucci.

How much do you think that was worth? $4,700. $4,700 for a patchy little coat there, man. My goodness, people, you might be a little too proud of yourself if you walk in with that and sport your Gucci. And then the last one, if your Christmas season is right around the corner, how about this beautiful sweater here, women?

Hello! The Christmas parties are coming and we have that nice Christmas outfit there. Look at there, that looks wonderful, right? That sweater is about $1,700. So, you might be a little proud if you walk around sporting that and calling out, huh, I got this from, you know?

Not just anybody can have this. Just a little fun there. But, at any rate, if you're on that side of the house, if you're proud, say you have a shirt and somebody's like, wow, that's a nice shirt! And you're like, yeah, yeah, you can only get it here, you know? Not many people have this shirt, you know?

It's a little, little expensive. That's how they react. And then on the other end, if you're ashamed, you're like, oh, this old thing, it was given to me. Oh, this old thing, you know? I got it on sale.

You know, some of you are quick. I know I am. I'm quick to say, I got it on sale. It really didn't pay that much for it, I promise, you know? Right?

Or if you have a car, you know, a really nice car, and people are like, wow, man, that's a luxury car. And the person on that end says, yeah, man, it's, yeah, not many people can afford this. Look, look, look here, man. You know, just sit in it, because you'll never probably be able to, you know, people react that way. Or you're on the other side where you're like, dude, I promise you this was a hand-me-down, man.

This is like my parents bought this or handed it down, or I got a great discount on it because I knew the guy, you know, that got it for me on this price. So that's kind of why we react to our riches and our wealth. Or maybe you have a house, and you build it with, you know, fine wood and granite, you know, townertops, and you chiseled it out. I think of Meet the Parents where, you know, Owen Wilson, he chiseled out all that. You know, you're like, look at that, you know, yeah, yeah, I did that.

You know, you're really proud, and you're showing everybody, you know, or you're on the other side of it where you're kind of ashamed, and you're like, oh, you know, it's just something that was, it was my parents' house, and I really didn't pay that much for it. So we can go either way. And it seems that on the shame side particularly, I know I deal with the shame side a little more because I grew up with this impression that it was kind of shameful to flaunt your wealth. So I took it to extremes, and any time I would have anything nice, I'd always say, oh, yeah, I got it on sale. And sometimes I even figured, I don't even go that direction today, you know, oh, wow, that's a nice, well, I didn't really, you know, pay full price for it, you know, and just a shame that sets in.

And it seems that the only areas we see this type of shame are finances and material things, right, where we see this kind of shame. For instance, you don't, when people say, hey, man, you got the greatest wife in the world, I don't say, well, oh, I got it at a blue light special over at the Five and Dime, you know. We don't do that, right? Or, man, your kids are so well-behaved. No, they're really devils.

They're evil. You know, we don't say that, do we? Or those cute little kids, no, they're really ugly. We just do a lot of work with them, you know. We don't do that, do we?

And it seems that we, but we do this with our money, and we do this with our finances. It's either pride or shame that we deal with, pride or shame. So we need to remember why God blesses us. Going back to the scripture that we dove into when we were taken off in our plane in the series, it says you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. So guess what?

It's okay to be rich. It's okay to have. It's okay because you will be made rich. And who makes you rich? Who makes you rich?

You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in what? Thanksgiving to God. Rich is not just a financial number. It's not just what's in your bank account.

You will be made rich in every way. Health. Mental health. Physical health. Friendship.

Service. Helps. Deeds. All the things we talked about. We can be made rich.

He makes us rich so that we can be rich to others. In Genesis 12, it says this. God says this. I will make you into a great nation. He's talking to Abraham, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

That's what he wants us to be. He wants us to be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all people on earth will be blessed through you. So we need to remember that God blesses.

Blessings come from God. It started with Abraham. It comes to us. Blessings are from God. We want to get that right first.

Because God has blessed us, this is it. Because God has blessed us with more, we will intentionally give more. So we want to be intentional givers. When God blesses us, we want to give more. So today, my hope is to make you intentional givers.

Yes, we give, and y'all are generous people, but we want to be intentional about it. We want to look at what we're doing. We want a plan. You know, what do we do? We want to be intentional givers, but we're really good at being intentional consumers.

Man, we are very intentional about consuming. What, we get a raise? What do we do? We buy more, right? I can finally get more in the yard.

I can do more to the house. I can get that pair of shoes I've always wanted. The first thing we're thinking about. And we'll do anything to get that thing, right? If we're so intentional about consuming, we're like, I will put it on the credit card, you know?

And I'll pay it off for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for For a year or two and pay like three times as much for it, right? Because we're so intentional, intentional about consuming. But what if we were intentional givers? What if we went through, if we're willing to do whatever it takes to actually give, and actually do, and actually make a difference with what we have. So, I want to give you the path to intentional giving.

There are three things I want to talk about today real quick as we finish up this series. The first type of giver is the spontaneous giver. Spontaneous giver. This is good. This is good.

It's a good way to give. A lot of us, and most of us, are spontaneous givers. We see somebody in need, what do we do? We pull out and we do and we make it happen, right? If somebody's in the hospital, we run to do that.

At the end of the year, we may hear a good message about giving, and maybe, you know, I've got the money here at the end of the year. I give a big sum of money to the church, or to a project, or to whatever it is. And we do this spontaneous giving, but the problem with spontaneous giving only, it actually limits us at our giving. It's like a bank account, you know, without a budget. You know, I'm just going to buy this, and buy this, and buy this, and do this.

And I want to get this, and we're going to purchase this, and then we look at the end of the month, and like, oh gosh, I'm, you know, $3,000 over, because I haven't really been intentional about what I've been giving. But I don't want you to stop being spontaneous givers. We need to be spontaneous givers. When we're moved, or our hearts move to give, we need to be spontaneous at that moment at times. In fact, the Good Samaritan is a great example of a spontaneous giver.

He found this man beaten on the path. Jesus tells us this story. And this Jewish man was beaten on the path, and the Samaritan comes through. And that day, Jewish people didn't want to have anything to do with Samaritans. And Jesus was trying to point out that your enemy is actually your friend in this.

But we see this Samaritan come and pick this man up off the ground who was beaten, bruised, and abused after two different people had passed him by and didn't pay any attention to him. And what does he do? He puts them in the end. And he says this, and the next day, he took out two silver coins and gave it to the innkeeper. He said, look after him.

He said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expenses you may have. He went above and beyond to help this man. He's a spontaneous giver. So spontaneous giving is really important. So many of you, but if it's all we do, if it's all we do, then we can be incredibly limited.

Many of you were spontaneous givers this past month, and I appreciate that. You know, turkey drop. You know, you brought in turkeys. We pitched a turkey campaign, and you brought in turkeys. You said, I'm going to bring in turkeys, you know.

You felt moved. Maybe some of you, you saw a poor family in need, and you were willing to put money together to help somebody in the church or in the community. And that's a great way to give. We need to be doing that as a church. We need to help people who need that.

We need to be spontaneous givers. But if we're just doing that, then we're really limiting ourselves in our giving. So God wants to take you to the next level, and this is why he gives us some principles here. And the next one is the strategic giver. We need to be a strategic giver.

We need to move from just spontaneous giving to being strategic. Plan to be generous. Sit down. Plan it out. In fact, Isaiah says this, but generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity.

They stand firm in their generosity because they plan to do it. They lay out a plan. It's always important to lay out a plan. So if we begin to incorporate spontaneous giving into a plan, this makes more sense, and you're going to be more effective. It's going to be more beneficial.

You'll be able to do more. So how can we be generous? And this is where the generous eye comes in. Because if we have a generous eye, we can sit down and think about what we are keen in helping. And the best way to do this, and I call it percentage giving.

The best way to give effectively is percentage giving. Being spontaneous, you know, we can do, but if we're not really laying out a percentage, then you're kind of ineffective. But if we can just look at what we have, and God starts, and I'm not going to go too much into this because we talked about this in week two, is the tithe. You start off with the tithe, right? Okay, here's what I have.

I tithe 10%. And then I decide, and then from there I decide what I want to give spontaneously. So whether that's 1% or 2% or 5%, we lay out a plan. And this is a great way to do it. If you're sitting down at the beginning of the year or the end of the year and you're setting a budget together and you're like, okay, this is how much we make.

And it's a great way to get with your wife or your kids or if you all want to do it together as a family and just kind of talk about what you're going to do, you know. Okay, here guys, here's what we have. Okay, here's our income. Here's our bills. Here's our tithe.

Here's what we give to the church. Okay, what are we going to do beyond and above that? Are we going to go 1% this year? Are we going to go 2% this year? Are we going to go 5% this year?

What are we going to do? So you kind of lay out a strategic, intentional plan for giving. And it makes you a much better giver. It makes you a much better giver when you go this. And it puts more power behind your giving.

It structures your giving so that you can give spontaneously and you can give strategically. And this makes it not just something that we do. It makes something that we become. We become a giver rather than I'm just going to do this here and do this there. We actually are strategically forming a giving, generous heart.

And that doesn't necessarily just mean finances. It means your time, your talent, and your resources, whatever resources you're given. You lay out a plan. Think about it with Abraham. Here's some great examples.

Abraham, he planned out when he sent the servant to find a wife for Isaac. What did he do? He packed gifts to give to her. He laid out a plan. He says, we're going to offer this to this family and to this woman so that she can marry my son.

You know, the wise man, when they showed up to see the Christ child, they didn't... They.... They.... Thank you. What did they do?

They planned out what they were to give to Christ. They didn't show up and just say, hmm, I wonder if I have some, you know, a quarter here, you know, to give to Jesus, you know, the Christ child. They actually planned out what they were going to give. Frankincense, myrrh, gold. They planned out.

They were strategic. They were strategic about what they were giving. They had a plan. Generous people planned to be generous. And then the third thing is what most people never make it to.

And that's called sacrificial giving. Sacrificial giving. This is the fanatics. These are the people that are so blessed because they understand what generosity means and they bless and they're blessed back. They're so strengthened.

They're willing to sacrifice. They realize it's not about us. They realize that it's about something greater than us. greater than themselves. And they want it to feel like it hurts a little bit when they sacrificially give.

They feel it. You can be wealthy and you can be sacrificial. You can, the example, a great example of that is Solomon who gave a thousand oxen to sacrifice when he was only required one. When he met with the sacrificial to purchase the sacrificial animals. And then we have David when he wanted to sacrifice something.

He was out and about and he met with this man about sacrificing. He wanted to pay the beast. He wanted to pay the beast to be able to sacrifice. And the man said, well, you're David. I'm not going to have you charge me for anything.

You know, you're the king. He says, no, I want to feel this. I want to pay for it because God deserves the best. I will pay for it. He was a wealthy, sacrificial giver.

On the other hand, we have those like the lady with the alabaster jar that broke a very expensive piece of perfume that many around were complaining about. A year's wages of perfume at the feet of Jesus. She probably didn't have a whole lot. I'm sure that was probably a grave commodity for her in that day. But she broke it before Jesus because she was being sacrificial.

She wanted it to hurt. The widow of Zarephath in the middle of a drought, Elijah comes to this lady who had no hardly any bread and oil and he asked her for a piece of bread. And she says, well, we'd only have a little bit left and I'm going home to fix that and feed me and my son. And then we die because of the great drought. Elijah says, trust the Lord and bring me a piece of bread and you will have plenty.

She went back and her oil and her bread never ran out. Her yeast never ran out because she served God. She gave her only little bit to the man of God. God can provide. She gave sacrificially.

In Acts 2, we see the community of believers sold to what they had and distributed in Jesus and they distributed among all the believers. They gave everything that they have. They sold everything that they had and they gave it. These are examples of people being sacrificial. And the greatest example, and I hit on this a couple of weeks ago, but I want to go a little deeper into it, is Jesus as he was sitting across watching all the Pharisees give their money.

And Jesus sat down opposite the place, this is in Mark, where the offerings were put. And watch the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large mounts, just throw it in there. They were just chunking it in there, you know, just wanted everybody's pride. You know, look what I have, look what I'm giving to the Lord.

But this poor widow, this poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus says, I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in everything. She out of her poverty put in everything, and all she had to live on, sacrificial. She wanted to feel it.

God wants to move us from just being spontaneous givers to sacrificial givers, where we trust God so much. We're so excited about what he's done, and what he is going to do, and everything that he represents. We're so excited about it. We're willing to give. We're willing to give, not only spontaneous, not only strategic, but sacrificial and intentional.

What is our giving? What if our giving, just imagine, what if our giving, what if we all got into that heart and mindset of being sacrificial givers, givers who are willing to do all? Imagine a church. Imagine a church who gave all they had, all they know, all they were able to give, and more. Imagine a church.

What would happen? Well, the church would be blessed. You'd be blessed. We'd be blessed. We'd be able to be a blessing to others.

We'd be able to reach people far beyond where we're currently reaching, because the truth is the church can only go as far as the people that represent God and their giving and being generous and giving their time and giving their talent and giving their treasure, giving their time and giving their talent and giving their treasure. Why do we do this? Why do we give? Why are we generous? Why do we give when it doesn't even make sense?

It's just kind of out of the norm of understanding that we know, right? I mean, why do we give? Why do we do what we do? Because something's happened inside of us. Something's happened in us.

And we're so excited about what God has done and what He continues to do. We know what it really means to be a blessing to others, because God has blessed us so much. The greatest gift, the greatest gift is to know that Jesus Christ was a sacrificial gift. See, this is what doesn't get into people's hearts, heads and hearts, and it gets me every time, I just don't get why people don't see it, that Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, He gave it all, He didn't just give financially, He didn't just give, you know, socially, He didn't, He gave His life, He put it all, He said, I'm willing to sacrifice myself, I'm willing to put myself on the cross. The Word of God says He could have called down a legion of angels to save Him at that moment, but He didn't.

Why? Because we have a sacrificial Jesus. He gave it all. Why are we generous? Because we have a generous God.

I gave a call a few weeks ago, you know, I get it, that a lot of us aren't in places that we can give financially, or perhaps you can give your time. Maybe you can, maybe you have a talent that you're not using for the Lord and He's calling you to use that talent. And even on the financial end, you know, we may not be able to do a full 10%, but I made this charge the other week and our leadership decided to do it. I'm asking you just to give 2% more than you're currently giving. So if you're giving nothing, I want to challenge you with God on that, on that, with that respect.

If you give, if you give 2%, I want you to test God at 2% if you're giving nothing right now. And if you're giving 10%, go 12%. Miranda and I are going well above 10% in our giving because we trust God. And guess what? We never go without.

We give our time. We give our talent. God will bless you. He will bless you. He makes that promise in His Word.

All of His promises are good for us. That's why we're generous. And we have a heart for generosity. I pray that you have a heart for generosity. If y'all will bow your heads and close your eyes, I just want to pray that you receive a heart for generosity.

Lord, I pray all across this church that people are stirred in their hearts as we end this series on generosity, Lord Jesus, that you would begin to spur people along to do the good work that you've called them to do. There are many people hurting in this community, Lord. There are many people that have nothing, Lord. And we're the only hope that they have. It may be physically.

It may be. But more importantly, Lord, it's spiritually. And we have the hope in you. We have a hope that no one can experience outside of you. So why do we do what we do because of you, Lord Jesus?

Spur us along, Lord. Strengthen our hearts. Strengthen our minds. Strengthen our purpose, Lord. Give us a vision for our lives for generosity, Lord.

Show us amazing, impossible, extraordinary things through what we do with our hearts of generosity, Lord. In that same spirit of prayer, there are some of you that has heard this message. Maybe something kind of got your heart there with all heads bowed and all eyes closed. I just want to give this opportunity. Is there anybody here today that you feel the Spirit is stirring you to make a decision for Him?

Maybe you've never had a relationship. Maybe you've been to church before. Maybe you fell out of church at some point because you were disenchanted with the church. Maybe you just thought that church wasn't something you needed. It's not really about church, guys.

I just want to say that it's not about church. It's about Jesus. The reason we gather together is because we love Jesus. We have a heart for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because He changed us from the inside out. And maybe that's you today.

You need a change in your heart. You need a change in your life. You need a change even in your finances. Maybe you need a change in your family life. You know, He can do all of that.

He can do that today, but it starts with just knowing Him. And what Jesus did is when He gave Himself on the cross, He removed the chasm that separated you from the Father, a Holy Father that actually loves you, that He was willing to give His Son so that you can have a relationship with Him today. So today, I challenge you. I ask you. I plead with you.

If you're here today and you want to give your life to Christ, just gently raise your hand. I'm not going to embarrass you. If this is your day, just make that decision today. Eternity is weighing on the ropes right now. This is not about our church.

It's not about anything. We do this because we want you to know Jesus. And if that's you today, if you would just lift your hand. If you would lift your hand.