It’s A Heart Thing

So, this is like my favorite time of year. Like, especially around, I probably like Thanksgiving even better than Christmas, because it's such a time that we think about others. We don't think about ourselves, we think about others, we think about ourselves less. But this year is a little different, because there are people that probably are in need more than they've ever been before. Can I just say that?

This is a time, you know, with the mandate to just come out again. I've had people, some people were really depressed that we couldn't, they thought we couldn't meet as a church. They were worried about that. So, I got, my phone was blowing up Friday night with people. Are we still having church?

Are we still doing the turkey drop? I don't know if I can go on without church. I don't know what I'm going to do, because things are crazy right now. But my belief is that the greatest weapon we can use, one of the ways, there's a lot of different weapons we can use. Yeah, we can raise our hallelujah, we can worship God, but we can also worship God through our generosity.

And it's super important that we tap into generosity, and that's a value we have as a church. At the end of the day, at the end of time, when Salt Church has been here and ran their course, and years and years ahead of time, I want this to be, I want people to look at this. And say, hey, you know what? I don't know about Jesus. I don't know about all this stuff, but those people, man, they are generous.

They are people who love people. They are people who want to make a difference. They are people who love our city and love this world. That's what I want us to be known for. Amen?

I want us to be people who are generous. So, for the next few weeks, we are going to talk about, this is a really short series, a two-week series on generosity, and we want to talk about this very thing, about being generous. And I go back to a scripture every year. I've done a long teaching on it, but just kind of give you this theme scripture from 1 Timothy. Paul is writing to the church.

He says, command those who are rich in this present world. Some of you are like, okay, I'm off the hook now because I'm not very rich. Most of you here own vehicles bigger than most of the world, okay? They're actual houses, okay? I mean, you guys have a lot.

So, we are actually rich in this present day, even when we don't feel like we're rich. We are, in fact, rich in this present world. And he says, not to be arrogant, nor put our hope in wealth, which is so uncertain. Isn't that true? Wealth is uncertain.

I think one of the greatest pieces to this whole pandemic puzzle is that people are afraid they're going to lose everything they have, right? Because they've put their hope in wealth. They've put their hope in all these other things in life rather than putting their hope, what does it say? But put their hope in God, who richly provides everything for our enjoyment, right? And I love that term, enjoyment.

He provides it for our enjoyment, meaning that it's a gift to us. Like, our wealth and our prosperity is a gift from God so that we can enjoy life, right? That's a good thing. Money isn't bad, and things aren't bad. They're given to us by God.

It's just about where they're coming from, right? So, he says, command them to be good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. And in this way, they will lay up, what, treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age. Now, that term treasures for themselves, that's not the treasure that we receive at salvation. These are the, these, some people kind of articulate it that way, you know, the coming age, that's hell and heaven.

This isn't the hell and heaven thing, right? This isn't heaven and hell. This is about storing up something greater, that there is actually in Scripture some kind of indication that even after this life, when we've given all we can, when we've put forth our effort, and we've done it with the right heart, with the right motivation, there is something in heaven waiting for us, a firm foundation for the coming age, that is when the, that is eternity, right? And so that we may take hold, and this is it, take hold of the life that is truly life, so that we may not put our life in the things that are currently happening now, the things that we may be losing now, but that we can place it in something life-giving, that's eternity. I love how John Bunyan, the writer of A Pilgrim's Progress, put this, you have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.

You have not really done anything today until you have done something without any repayment back. How many of you have had that opportunity? How many of you have that attitude? That's what I want to get to today. Some of you are like, well, is this really that big of a deal, Pastor Leon?

I mean, this whole giving thing, you know, generosity, and having a heart for generosity, is this really that big of a deal? Well, let me just take you to the Bible. In biblical interpretation, we look at how many times a word is used in order to understand its importance. And many of you would believe that belief, to believe is a really big deal, right? Believe is used 272 times in Scripture.

And prayer, that's a really big deal, right? If we pray, you know, prayer changes things. That's, it's important. We preach on it. We teach on it.

We think it's everything, right? But prayer is used 371 times in Scripture. And then you have love. Well, love is everything, right? I mean, love is what it's all about.

God's love for the world. God sent his only son, right? That makes sense, you know, 714 times in Scripture. But the word give, the word give blows these guys out of the water. Give, 2,161 times in Scripture it is used.

The word give. Why? Because it's the very heart of God. God is a generous God. The subject is God.

The object is us. And the verb is he gave his only son because he loved us. That is him. He is all about generosity. He is generous enough to offer himself.

He offered himself. Jesus offered himself on the cross in the most generous form that a man could possibly do or give. And that is their own life for us. So we have this God who is a generous God. And the fruit of generosity is that we are generous as well.

We, as we become like Jesus, as we become like Christ, we are generous people. The psalmist says it like this in chapter 37, verse 21. The wicked borrow and never repay, but the godly are generous givers. Godly people are generous givers. Another proverb says it like this.

A generous man will... He who refreshes others will what? Also will himself be refreshed. And maybe some of you are skeptical, oh no, I've come to church today and this turkey drop thing, and I'm kind of here as a guest, and you're like, oh man, now this pastor wants to talk about money and giving and things like that. And they're like, oh, the people who give are like, yay!

And the people who don't are like, oh, you know, what's going on here? But that's not what this, this isn't about give me money message. This isn't about giving the church. This is simply about what God's heart is and the motivation behind it. In fact, this church is super generous.

For our size of church, we give. We're a giving church. Our people give. We are givers. In fact, this past year, y'all have blown my mind with your giving.

In fact, there's some months, Freya, compared to last year, y'all have given double. Y'all have given double some months in what, our highest giving month last year. So you guys are just amazing givers. And if you're a guest, I just say this, and we say this at the end when we do our giving moment, that you are not obligated to give. We never want to make people give.

We don't feel like that's the heart of generosity is to make people give. This is our gift to you. We're just glad you're here. We give because we want you here with us. So you're not obligated to give.

This is our gift to you. But when you hold on to this thing called generosity, something special happens. It refreshes you. It blesses you. In the original Greek, that word blessing, when you see it, it means happy.

It makes you happy. It makes you joyful. It makes you happy. And I don't want something from you. And God certainly doesn't want something from you.

He wants something for you. And that's why he talks about generosity. It's not forcing you to be generous, but it's the motivation behind what this is all about. And Paul talks about this in the Second Corinthians Church. He speaks to these people about this.

In fact, he dedicates a couple of chapters to the Church of Corinth and calls them to this place of giving. And at the end of the day, some of you are going to be involved in this or not. You know, you're here and you're like, I'm going to give. No, I'm not going to give. Whatever it is.

And we do not give to get. Now, I just want to say this real quickly here. There's a lot of bad teaching out there that we give to get. We give to get. This is why we do it.

You'll get twofold, threefold, fourfold, blah, blah, blah. And they use scripture to try to promise you that you're going to get an exact number back. And it's going to happen. We are not a prosperity get to give church. We want you to do it for the right reasons.

We want you to be a generous because there's a motivation behind your generosity that's beyond what I'm going to get back. And God forbid this church ever teaches it with the wrong motivation. So that's not where I want to start today. I want to start with this message I'm entitling a heart thing. It's a heart thing because it really is a heart thing.

It's a heart thing. And Paul talks about it being a heart thing when he's talking to the church of Corinth. And if you know anything about Paul, he is a church planter and church planters. Apostles tend to be church planters. And he was planting all these churches in these different cities.

And the Corinthians church was was one that he was speaking to in this letter. And he was bringing a challenge to the church. He was actually calling out another church in another city and talked about what they were doing. And he's like, let's let's have a little competition here. You know, look at what these guys are doing.

And you guys are extremely rich church. The city of Corinth was a very rich area and there was a lot of rich people in there. And there was this other city in Macedonia that he was talking about that wasn't very rich at all. But yet they were giving a lot. And he talked a lot about the mother church in Jerusalem where the apostles were sent from and and where Jesus was from in Jerusalem.

And it was commonality to be able to give to the home base so that the gospel could continue to come out. It was part of the giving here. We have that going on here as well. We give to a network of churches so that we can revitalize. We can plant more churches.

We are a part of church planting. I lead a church planting movement as well in our network. So we are a part of that. And here's what you see here that you need to give. He felt like it was it was a heart.

A part of that was to give to that that particular church in Jerusalem. And here's how it goes. If you'll turn with me in 2 Corinthians 8, 1 and 12. And just to remind you, the app is available, the Bible app. If you'll go to the Bible app, you can open up the event and find thanks and giving there, which is our short series for this week and next week.

And you can go in and make notes yourself. We're not handing out notes. Usually we have written notes for you or typed out notes so that you can follow along. But you can do this electronically and follow along with us so it's safe for you. And he says this, beginning with verse 1 in chapter 8.

And now, brothers, we want you to know about this grace. This grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. This grace that he's talking about is not the grace that Jesus paid for in a cross. It's a different type of grace in the Greek. It's called kairos.

And what it means is something inside of them was stirred. Something supernaturally inside of them was stirred. Something was placed on them to stir them to want to do this. So this grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty.

Now, that's interesting right there. It can only be God if that's happening at the same time. There's this overflowing joy and in their extreme poverty. So in their extreme poverty and severe trials, they were experiencing this joy, this overflowing joy. To us, that doesn't make a lot of sense.

It only has to be God. And it says, It welled up in rich generosity. Rich generosity. Rich in generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability.

Entirely, on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service of the saints. In fact, not only were they giving way beyond what they were capable of giving, they wanted to do more. And they were pleading and Paul was probably like, no, no, no, you guys are poor people. You're doing enough. No, but we want to do more.

We want to do more. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves. They gave themselves. They gave themselves first to the Lord, and then... to us in keeping with God's will, meaning that they gave themselves, like all of themselves.

It wasn't just, it’s not about finances, it’s not about those things, necessarily. It’s about a lifestyle, and for us, it’ could be just hugs and texts and sharing and loving and connecting with each other and going out of our way, saying our whole self is in this thing called generosity. It’s not just a money thing, it’s more than that. It’s generosity to the full. So we urged Titus, and Titus is the guy who goes to the different churches and collects the tithing and the money to send back to Jerusalem, that’s who he’s talked about, since he had earlier made a beginning to bring also to completion the act of grace on your part, but just as you’ excel in everything, so he’s saying, man, you’ excel in faith and you’ excel in speech and you’ excel in knowledge and in complete earnestness and in love for us, see that you’ also excel in this grace of giving.

So he’s like encouraging them, you’'re already like an awesome church, so just continue to give. And then I love how he’ says this, I’ am not commanding you, because I don’ want to put you under obligation to give, because that’s not what I want. I don’ want to put a law or a rule on you about giving. I’ don’, I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others, for you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, so he kind of throws it back on Jesus, he was rich, he was the king of everything, right? He’ sat on a throne, he was over everything, and he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor.

He gave up everything for you, he gave it all up, he owned it all. He’s a bleeding, generous heart, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. Now, this doesn’ mean that you’'re going to be blessed with all kinds of finance. He’s not talking about money here, he’s talking about emptying ourselves to make the lives of others better, that we can be rich so that generosity can flow through us. We are blessed financially, we are blessed with everything so it can flow through us so that we can become rich in this world, to this world, to help change this world, to make a difference in this world.

And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter. Last year, you were the first not only to give, so they were a giving church, obviously, but also to have the desire to do so. So, now finish it. So, he tells them, now finish the work that you started. Don’ stop there.

Saul, you are generous, you have been amazing this year. But don’ stop there, we’ve got more to do, we’ve got more people to reach, we can do more. We can do abundantly above all that God can ask or think. So, we need a giving heart, we need a heart of generosity because Jesus, only because what Jesus has done for us do we have that heart to share what we have. So, now finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it according to your means.

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what has not, according to what he does not have. So, here we see that God is more interested in your attitude than he is your pocketbook. He’s more interested in your attitude of giving more than the amount you give. So, the question today is, what is your attitude for giving? And we want to look at that.

I want to give you five things we can pull out of the Corinthians scripture to the Corinthians church, 2 Corinthians, and hopefully it will help you understand why we do what we do, why we are generous people as believers in Christ. First of all, we give joyfully. We give joyfully. We have fun with it. We enjoy giving.

We have these cards called Random Acts of Kindness. And does anybody have a Random Act of Kindness card on them? I forgot to bring one here up on stage. Okay. Oh, okay.

It looks like somebody. Let's see who the generous people are in here. Yeah, yeah. See, they're ready. They're ready.

Everybody else? Everybody else in here? You better go grab you some after church over at the Welcome Center and go bless the socks off of somebody, okay? And I want you to have fun with these things, okay? So there's these cards that we have that say just something a little extra to show you that God loves you.

Now, we did give out a lot of those cards. We've got another set of them coming in next week. So if you run out today, come back next week, grab a handful of them. But here's what we do with these cards. We just do acts of kindness.

We want to bless people. We want to do some fun things. And there are so many amazing stories of what's happened through these Random Acts of Kindness cards, not only in our churches, but other churches that we have done this together with, there was one story of somebody who walked into a CVS, and they heard the person in front of them asking how much their prescriptions were, and they said it was $150. And the guy kind of scratched his head, walked over to the corner, got on his phone, talked to his wife, and says, honey, we're only going to be able to pick one of these scriptures. So the guy walks up to the counter, prescription, excuse me.

And so he walks up to the counter, the guy with the Random Acts of Kindness card, and he whispers over, he says, how much was that? They said $150. He says, I'm going to pay for that, but here's a card for them. So they come back up to the cash register, and they realize it's paid. And could you imagine the guy just over there, just like, oh man, I can't wait to see their face when they look at this, and they realize that somebody actually, and the expression on their face, because it's a joyful thing that we do.

A few years ago, a group of us was at Whiskey Kitchen having some burgers after church, and Terry O'Quinn, the actor, walked in with his family and sat right over from us, and I remember us being there. And if you don't know who Terry O'Quinn is, how many of you are Lost fans? Like, you watch the show Lost? Remember Lost, the really disappointing ending that everybody's, like, still trying to get over, because there was so much build up every episode about all these things. And all these loose ends that never got tied up, and they just ended the show.

But Terry O'Quinn was John Locke on that show. He was the bald guy that was, like, kind of the guy of wisdom and all that other stuff. And he comes and sits in, and I look over to the guy next to me, and before I get it, that guy looks like, and he looks over and says, it is, it is, it's Terry O'Quinn. I'm like, okay, I didn't even know the actor's name. Terry O'Quinn, okay, yeah, yeah, just, like, be cool, because he's a big guy, big star.

We don't want to, like, I was like, we don't want to look at him, you know? And I'm like, that's cool. So I couldn't help but stare at him anyway. Gosh, man, that's cool, you know? Like a movie star here.

Virginia Beach, apparently he lived here in Virginia Beach, somewhere around our community even, and we don't even know it, and we all decided to get together, Miranda and some other people, and pay for his meal, and we left a little card for them over at the—we asked the waitress to leave a card for him, and later on we saw on our Twitter, his Twitter account, those sneaky people over at the table next to us, paid for our meal, how sweet, how precious, and what I want to say to that is, it’s not only for people who can afford things, it’s for people who can afford things, too, because we want to bless those who are not rich in this present world, in this eternal world that we’re talking about. Maybe rich in this present world, but there is eternal world that they’re not rich in. We’re after the rich people, too, amen? It is harder for a rich man to get to the kingdom of heaven for it than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, as Scripture says, because it is really hard as we talk about money and we walk through this life, and we want to make sure that they are living the blessed life as well, and they can. But you people with money, the way to live blessed is let that run through you, and you can do amazing things, too.

So we’re after everybody. Why don’t we do a turkey drop? Why don’t we put goofy hats on our heads and walk around and have a good time? Because we love generosity, and we want to be joyful givers. We want to be joyful givers.

In the book of Acts, it says, it is more blessed to give than to receive. It is blessed. Blessed, that word blessed means happy. It is more happy to give than to receive. 2 Corinthians 9, 7, it says, each man should give what he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves what?

A cheerful giver. That Greek word cheerful literally means, get this, hilarious. It means hilarious in the original language. We want to be hilarious givers. We want to laugh, and we want to smile, and we want to be joyful givers for God.

Even the Proverbs even says this, some people are always greedy for more, but God loves to give, right? Like godly people, loves godly people to give. There was this report from the Wall Street Journal that happened back in August 2013. They were working on understanding something, because in Darwinian evolution, it's survival of the fittest, and the strongest went out. The strongest beats the weakest, and they end up rising to the occasion.

So, you know, it's kind of a selfish way of looking at humanity and mankind and things like that. But they couldn't understand why people were so generous. Like, people always are generous. It doesn't matter. Why would people be generous if we believe this theory?

And Dr., if I pronounce his name right, is Hawk, did a study that linked random acts of kindness to releasing dopamine, a chemical messenger to the brain, and they ultimately called it the helper's high. So, there's actually a chemical in our brains. So, when we do something generous, when we do something for somebody, when we do something that goes out of our way, there's a chemical put in there, and they can't really figure that out. Well, I could tell you what's going on there.

God put that chemical in us, because God likes us to give, and it's a joy to give. So, God gives this chemical that gives us this exuberant idea of just enjoyment when we give. So, we want to be cheerful givers. He gives us that helper high. He could have done anything with our giving.

He could have made it miserable for us, but he makes it joyful for us. So, God has actually hardwired generosity inside of us. We can be cheerful givers. Secondly, we need to be selfless givers, give selflessly. We want to give selflessly.

In verse 5, it says, and they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves. They gave themselves. They didn't just give financially. They didn't just give, you know, the way, a turkey and a truck to take to a homeless family. They gave themselves.

They gave everything that they have. They gave themselves. Isn't that what God did? That makes a little sense there, that they would give themselves, that Christians would give themselves, because God gave himself, for God so loved the world, that he gave his son, right? He gave.

He gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. So, it connects together. He gave. He gave. We gave because Christ first gave.

And aren't you grateful that we have people that are selfless, that someone who gives of themselves, that someone gave to even make Salt Church happen, that someone gave? Aren't you thankful that someone gave their time to work with your children so you can sit in here today? Aren't you glad someone gave their time to come out here and set up tech boards and cameras and do all this stuff so that we can get an online service for you guys who are online right now watching and being able to participate in this and be safe in your homes during this pandemic so you can still be a part of the family? Aren't you glad that somebody took time to give in the offering plate? They gave beyond what they were capable of doing so that we can even rent this facility and have things to be able to bless others.

Aren't you glad that we have the finances to be able to give to other churches, to give to church plants, to give to organizations in our city because somebody selflessly said, I'm going to give everything because it's all yours anyway? I mean, thank God that they didn't say, that's not me, right? I thank God that Noah said, you know what? I don't do arcs. I thank God that David said, you know what?

I don't really do giants. Giants aren't my thing. I don't really want to do giants. You know, God, I mean, that's cool. Thank God Paul said, I don't do letters.

I don't do letters to the church. I'm not going to do those things. And aren't you glad that somebody said, you know what? I don't do church plants. I don't do stuff like that.

The, the, the, the eight person team that we had at the beginning of this church that said, we want to do this. Thank, thank, thank God that they were here. And they said, you know what? We're going to give of ourself. We're going to give selflessly.

We're going to, we're going to give. And aren't you glad that Jesus said, I don't do crosses. I just don't do that. Father, I don't do crosses. Thank be to God for his incredible gift.

Incredible gift. Second Corinthians nine 15. He gave us this incredible gift. Thirdly, we give willingly. We give willingly because the only reason I give is because I, I, I really want to that.

That's what God wants us to think. The only reason we give, or should give, is because we really want to, a willful giver. Look at verse 12, for if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable. Pop that up. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable.

People ask all the time about the tithing question. You know, that's always a tithing thing, you know, because tithing is one of those controversial subjects, you know. Is that an Old Testament thing? They say, Pastor, is that an Old Testament law? And the fact is, yes, it is an Old Testament law.

It is an Old Testament law, but the best way I explain it, tithing is an Old Testament law, but it is a New Testament attitude. It's a New Testament attitude. It moved from the external obligations to an internal light inside of us that wants to get. In fact, Jesus had a way of lifting or elevating the standards for us because it was about the heart issues. He had a way of doing things that made people, oh, you know, for instance, he says, you shall not, you know, the law says not to commit adultery.

He says, if you look on a woman with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart. He said, the law says you hate your brother and love your brother and hate your enemies. But he said, I tell you to love your enemies and do well to them. Oh, no, I don't want to, God, because I have, I'm justly justified because I like that word just, I like that just, it kind of works for me, justly justified, to not like that person, to hate them, to despise them. But he says, I'm going to tell you to do something you can't do on your own because, and that's what he says about the tithe.

In fact, if I wanted to go into an art, I'm not going to go into this today, but just real quickly, the tithe predates the law, the way predates the law, all the way back to the beginning, tithing happened in Genesis, and it postdates it as well because Jesus didn't abolish it. He actually said, you should tithe and you should do this. He was just calling attention to the eternal, internal thing that was going on inside of people. And stop, you know, it's not about how much you give, it's about the attitude in which you're giving. And in fact, Matthew 5, 17, do not think that I come to abolish the law of the prophets.

I didn't. I came, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. So Jesus had a way of taking things and making them internally, not externally. I could say, you know, man, you know, I really want to cheat on my wife. I want to, so bad, but that law right over there tells me not to because, you know, oh, and so, you know, and we kind of, but that's not why I want to be faithful to my wife.

I want to be faithful to my life because I love my wife and I honor my wife. I really do. I do not want to do it because something's written on a tablet. There's something inside of me that wants to love her. God says the same thing.

I don't want you to give because there's a tablet that says give. I want you to give because you really have a heart for me and you honor me and you know what I want to do with what you're doing. You know why I gave you the things because it's all mine anyway. Anyway, I'm just giving you an opportunity to use it. I don't just got to.

I get to. I get to give. That's where he wants you to get. I get to. I get to do this thing.

I get to bless. I get to serve. I get to do all these things for people, for this world that he loved. And then number four, we got to give thankfully. This is where it kind of comes into Thanksgiving, you know, the giving.

And then I have thanks when I give. I'm thankful because anytime you give, whether it's tithing or helping somebody or contributing to something, it's going back to that. Or anytime I do that, it goes back to you just don't. God, I'm so thankful. I don't deserve.

Let me tell you guys, I don't deserve any. I don't deserve this right here. I don't deserve to be standing up here in front of you, preaching to you, sharing. I don't. You know why?

Because I know me. I know me better than I know anybody. And I know what I'm worthy of. And I am not worthy of any of this. I am not worthy of Jesus Christ.

But he gave a gift to me. He gave his self to me. He gave his blood to me. He gave the cross to me. He says here, you are worthy.

They may say you're not worthy. Sin may say you're not worthy. But you are worthy of me. And that's what I stand on. I am so thankful.

That's why I want to give. It's not because I should give or it's written on the tablet. It's because I'm so thankful for him. In fact, Psalm 116 says it like this. How can I repay the Lord for all of his goodness?

I can't. That's the simple answer. You can't. We can't. We can't repay him.

There's nothing we can do to repay him. 1 Chronicles says it like this. Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hands. You know what that means? It means everything that he's given you is his anyway, and he's given it to you to distribute out the way that he calls you to distribute out or he prompts you to distribute it out.

Everything, my life, my time, my talent, my job, my wife, my kids, my friends, everything that I have comes from the Lord. Absolutely, everything that I have is his, and he gives me those things, so what more can I do is give those back. I didn't put this in the notes necessarily, but there's a scripture in Exodus 13 that talks about remembering and being thankful, and it says, and you can go back and read it. It talks about, it says, Israel, remember this. When you have that opportunity to do things, when you make that sacrifice to God, when you give that offering to God, when you practice that event for God or whatever you do, when your kids ask, you tell them, and you pull off that robe, you pull off that shirt, you show them the scars, you show them where you came from, you show them the pit that you were in, the brick laying that you used to do, and that God delivered you from it, that God brought you out of that.

Remember that. So anytime my kids ask me, my daughter asks me, why do you pray? Why do you pray? Why do you give? They ask me, why are we giving this?

You know, why do we have to do this? It's not because it's a law written on a tablet, it's because I'm so thankful for what God has done for me. Kids, if you only knew me before I knew God, and you knew where I was, and how dark it was, and where I was at, you just, all I can do is do this. I can't do more. I can't repay him back.

This is what, this is everything. This is all I can do. This is just. This is just a little bit of what I can do. This is just, this doesn't even compare to what even has in store for us one day.

He's got so much more for us. And this is just what I can do. And we need to retell those stories to our kids and keep them reminded. And number five, give intentionally. Don't be random in your acts of kindness.

If we could have the instruments up here, we're closing here in just a second, because I know you guys are ready to get some of this barbecue that's getting ready. If I could have Alec and Gavin to come up and play in the background here as we get, as we roll through this. See, don't be random in your acts of kindness. I know we call it random acts of kindness, but when I say don't be random with our acts of kindness, I mean don't be emotional about what you give. Don't be prompt by emotion.

We never want to be a church that's prompted by emotion. We don't ever want to be one that makes you feel like, oh, if I don't give, I'm, you know, looking. We don't want to be that kind of church. We want to be a church that, we want to be intentional. And we always run it through this filter.

Second Corinthians says, you must make up your own mind, right, of how much you should give. Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. See, we never want to be a church that gives in response to some type of pressure into giving to make you feel like you have to give. But there is a filter that we give through. And here it is.

We give through the filter of eternity. Eternity is our filter. We're thinking about eternity. We're being intentional for eternity because at the end of the day, the reason we would do this is really to share the love of God to a lost world. That's why we do this.

This is why these random acts of kindness cards that we get and we go out and we do. Do as if eternity matters. Do it through that filter. Heard the story of a guy who said, I was at Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts, can't remember which one. And I was seven in line to someone who paid coffee to someone and it went all the way back to that person.

So that guy, that was the first one that paid the coffee. They gave a card that something a little extra to show you and it's written in big letters. God loves you. He gave that card. He said, hand it to the person behind them.

That person behind them gets the card and they look at it. They give the card back. Pay for the person behind me. Give it to the next person. Give it to it.

Give it. Give it. Give it. Seven, at least seven people. We don't know how far back it went.

Got to see God loves them. That God loves you. And I share this story all the time. There was a young lady that was going through the line. I think I shared it last week.

I got to share it again. Chick-fil-A line. Get her last Chick-fil-A sandwich before she would go home and take her own lunch. She got to that drive-thru. She said, God, just give me one sign.

One sign that your meal has been paid for. We run everything through the filter of eternity. We run all of our generosity through the filter of eternity. Is it not worth it to pay seven bucks for somebody's eternity? Is it not worth it to just go and pay somebody's bill or pump somebody's gas or rake somebody's yard or go and just do something randomly?

Is it not worth it for eternity, for God's sake, for the sake of heaven, for the sake of the kingdom, so that somebody who was destined for hell can now live life in eternity? This young lady gave her life to Christ, got very involved in the church, and became a part of the kingdom of God. But her life would have been taken that evening if somebody didn't step up to the plate and say, I can spend six or seven bucks on somebody behind me and make a difference in somebody's life. They probably don't even know what they did when they did that. But you don't know what you're capable of doing until—and you don't have to know because that's not what it's about.

We don't do—we do these things because we want to be— 1 Timothy 6.19 says, By doing this, you will be storing up real treasure for yourself in heaven. It is the only safe investment for you. That's the only safe investment. So in closing, I want to say one more thing.

And I didn't start out with this because it's not where you start. But there's one more thing that I want to give you, and there is definitely something special when we give that God does back to us, and He does bless us. He gives us that promise that He will bless us. Let me just give you—I know this full well because this is me personally. If y'all really want to know the heart of this church right here, it was called giving sacrificially.

I had to trust God. When we started this church, the church we were at gave us a $2,000 love offering. They blessed us with a $2,000. You know, and I felt the Lord tell me that I need to take this $2,000, and let me just give you some context here. That I need to take this $2,000 and just put it immediately into church.

It wasn't that we didn't need that $2,000 because here's what was going on. I had just left my job. A financial situation didn't come through that I thought would that would help us sustain. My wife was in between jobs because her company was going through some stuff, and they had to lay her off. I had a kid with special needs, and another one went on the way.

So in my heart, in my own heart, I needed to pocket that $2,000 and take care of myself, but I felt like the Lord wanted me to put that $2,000 into that bank account for the church. That was our first $2,000 that we placed in Salt Church. We didn't have anything. And we placed that $2,000 in Salt Church. And what we learned is God is a provider because not only did He give us everything that we needed, a check showed up in the mail.

Right when we needed them. Things happened to make it work for us. Miranda was blessed with a job that she's still with now and still being blessed through. Things happen when we bless, when we honor God by giving everything. We give it all.

It just works. You can't out-give God. That's the promise. You cannot out-give God. You cannot out-give God.

Do you hear me? You cannot out-give God. You cannot give more than God is capable of giving you back. And I don't say that because I want you to think this is a give to get. I say this because I know what He's capable of doing over and over and over again.

We have been financially blessed. Checks came in right when we didn't think they would come in and we were able to pay our bills. Things happened. People would bless us with things, with substances and, you know, economies. You know, just all kinds of things that we got that helped us live.

God takes care of His children. And that's what Proverbs says. It's not in your notes, but your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine if you honor the Lord with generosity. 2 Corinthians 9, 6 says it like this. Remember this.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. But whoever sows generously will reap generously. See, we didn't start salt because we were thinking of ourselves. We started salt because we were thinking of Him. We had the heart of God and we were thinking about Him.

And some of you have experienced life change in this church. Some of you have taken closer steps to Christ in this church. Salvations have happened. Rededications have happened. Transformations have happened.

Bondages have been broken. All because we said that $2,000 is going in. We need this, God. We need this, God. But you, because God loved you.

God spoke to me, but God ultimately spoke to me through me to tell you that He loves you. That it was all worth it and it all still is worth it. So if that's you today that needs to hear that, you need to hear that God loves you and He wants a relationship with you. If you'll bow your heads and close your eyes, I just want you to pray this with me. And I want you to pray it out loud.

If that's you, church, you can join in with us because we believe that this salvation moment, this is the moment, this is the moment that we all come together and we experience the salvation of the Lord. If that's you and we want to rejoice with you because God is already doing something in your heart, drawing Him to you because He loves you and He wants a relationship with you. And He does that. He says, He says, He who confesses with their mouths and believes in their heart that I am the Lord, that I died and I rose again, will be and will be saved. You can be and will be saved.

So pray this with me. Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God and that you died on the cross for my sin. Today I give my life to you. I am yours. There's no turning back.

I'm moving forward. Come into my heart. Make me a new person. I give it to you today.