The World of Beeing Generous

Well, hello Salt Church. How are you doing today? So good to see you here with us at our first service here at the Beach Cinema L House. Thank you for coming. If you have brought turkeys today, we're aiming for 200.

It looked like we were kind of hitting 50 or 60 out there already here in the first service. Praise God for that. And we're so thankful that you've come out and you're a part of this. If you're new with us today, you have a connection card in your seat. In fact, if you've been with us for a while, you have a connection card sitting around you.

If you wouldn't mind filling that out, if you're new with us, we want to just connect with you. You can hand that off as you go out the door at our Next Steps area and we have a special gift for you. We just thank you so much for being with us and we just want to honor you today. And I promise you we won't sell your email or anything like that. We just want to give you more information about our church.

We got a lot of exciting things happening. It's a great family to be a part of and just want to give you some connection pieces. I know I realize that many of you are kicking the tires and trying to figure out if this is your church. But, you know, we love you and we just thank you that you're here. Also, next week we have lunch with Leon directly after both services or actually the second service.

We meet over at Beach Bella Pizza over near Yosha Front and we'll provide pizza for you. And you want to come out and check more, kind of meet me a little more and hear more about the church. I'd love to have you with us. So, I am super excited to be back. I was out last week.

In fact, I haven't spoken in the last two weeks. So, that's kind of, so I'm ready to speak today, okay? I'm ready to share and hopefully I don't go too long because I have so much to share in this Be Generous series. I won't go long, I promise, okay? If you're getting a little worried about that.

Because right afterwards we have some barbecue outside that you can grab and we have jump houses for the kids and things like that. So, it won't be too long. But, I thank Michael Simone for launching our series last week called Be Generous. B-E-E Generous. And here's the idea of the series is that bees are the most generous creatures on the planet.

Bees are the most generous creatures on the planet. I believe that and pollinators in general are kind of keeping the earth alive, right? I mean, here's what pollinators do. They produce one-third of the food supply by giving us countless fruits and vegetables. And they take care of one half of the world's oils and fibers and natural raw resources.

And these things are used to create medicines and things like that. They prevent soil erosion. They clean up streams and rivers and waterways. They produce oxygen we breathe. I mean, we actually breathe the oxygen that they produce because they help make the plants fertile.

And 80% of pollinators in the world are bees. Are bees. So, the idea of generosity, these bees work and work. And some of you don't like bees because you've been stung by them. Or, I don't know, maybe they're the most feared animal to you.

But they're actually a very generous and gracious animal. And without them, we would be missing a very valuable part of our ecosystem. Our ecosystem would just be radically changed if we did not have bees. These bees are working and they don't even know how generous they are to giving and pollinating things. And in the same way, the church exists to give life to the world.

The church exists just like bees. I want us to imagine ourselves as the people, the bees. The people that give life, that pollinate the world. If the church didn't exist, culture would be radically different. The church has changed culture.

By the church being present in specific areas, in cities, in environments, in communities, it has brought life to communities. The church has brought hospitals. They've put orphanages in place. Educational institutions were started. Some of the most popular educational and most valued educational systems were started by churches, by Christians, by Christian leaders, by people who wanted to bring change to culture.

The Red Cross was started by a Christian businessman in Switzerland. The Salvation Army was started by a Christian missionary, William Booth. So we have, and the things that they're still doing today that go beyond them. They have gone on to be with the Lord, but things are still flourishing through these institutions. And it's all because of the church.

The church is valuable in bringing life, bringing life to our world. So what does the Bible say about it? So let me just give you a little bit of information here. First of all, when you're studying the Bible, you kind of look at the word count of how things are used in Scripture. It kind of expresses the importance.

If there's a lot of use of a word, then it's probably important. And believe is really important in Scripture. How many of you would agree that believe is pretty important? Because you need to believe. Well, believe is mentioned 272 times in Scripture.

Pray is pretty important, right? We need to pray. Pray is super important. God needs to hear our prayers. We connect with God through our prayers, right?

And it's mentioned 371 times in Scripture. Love. Love is a big deal, right? Because God is love, right? I mean, God is love.

And we talk about God being love and how He loves you. And we sing about God being love. And it's mentioned 714 times. But give is mentioned 2,161 times in Scripture. Wow.

And if that's there that many times, it's probably important to God. It's probably important to God. Giving is significantly important. Why? Because our God is a generous God.

Amen? He gave His only Son. He is the most generous of generous. He defines generosity. And people, here's what I believe.

People don't have to be convinced to be generous. Okay? Because something deep down inside yourself says, I want to be generous. I need to be generous. I need to be generous.

Yeah. There's something inside of us that's more important than just our little selfish world. Even though we fight ourselves over these things, you know, because we are selfish people, there's something deep down inside of us that we are designed to be generous. Human beings are designed to be generous. And today, I just want to remind you of that.

I want us to look at Scripture real quick here and get some information from here. As we're celebrating Thanksgiving, this is a generosity season. We only do this a couple of times a year. We talk about generosity a few times a year. And this is the season to do that.

This is the season to be reminded of why we're here, our purpose, what we're doing. So, let's look at that today. And here's what Proverbs 11, 24. And I'm going to be digging into the Proverbs today. Speak from the Proverbs on the idea of generosity.

Generosity. And it says, the world of the generous get larger and larger. I mean, those who are generous, their world gets really, really big. They get influential. But the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

And how many of you can relate to that? When you're stingy and you hold things in, it's a very small world. It's your world and nothing else. But those who are generous, I've got friends who have the ability to make money and do incredible things. And they are like, I've got one friend.

He's probably one of the wealthiest people in Virginia Beach. And he is the most generous guy. If I ever need, he's a believer. He loves the Lord. And I can call on him.

If I have anybody that needs any help, he's there. See, God blesses us so that we can be a blessing. And that's what I want to talk about today. That our worlds can be big if we are generous. And the world of the stingy is small.

And almost every verse in the Bible, it doesn't focus on the receiver. It focuses on how blessed the giver is. It really does. I mean, God wants us to be blessed. And we are blessed to be a blessing.

And there are those who have large bank accounts, but their hearts are empty. They've got full bank accounts, but their hearts are empty. And God doesn't want us to have that small, stingy, you know, little world. He wants to open up our worlds to big things. Here's what Winston Churchill said.

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. You can make a living. You can get by. But you want a life, a big life, by what we give.

Mother Teresa said it like this. A life not lived for others is a life not lived at all. It's not lived. And as we learned in week one last week, Michael shared, you know, three questions. And it really challenged me when I was listening to the message.

He said, where did it all go? At the end of this life, we're going to ask these questions no matter where we are. Where did it all go? Well, what did I spend it on? And did it really make a difference in eternity?

When we're standing before God one day, is it really, you know, the amount of money I have in my bank account? The large house that I left? I mean, really, is there something that's going to go on past where I am and who I am? You know, like, is it really making a difference in this world? So let's look at what it means to be the world of the generous.

The world of the generous is big, right? Let's look at that. The first thing that generosity does, generosity, or the generous, rather, are happy. They're just happy people. Why are people happy?

Well, ask this. I mean, when you do something nice for somebody, doesn't it make you feel good? Doesn't it make you feel good? When you buy your children Christmas gifts, you don't even have to get anything for Christmas, you know. But you just like to watch your kids get those gifts.

What does it make you feel good if you're a parent, right? Or if you just spontaneously do something for a friend or somebody who's just in need, and they're not even asking for it, doesn't it make you feel good? How about that kid at the lemonade stand, you know, in the summertime, and they have this watered-down Kool-Aid, you know, and they're selling it, and then you just go, I'm going to buy that. You don't even care about the lemonade. You just want to give to this kid, and they're, like, pouring it, and they got their little finger in it, you know, and stuff, you know, while they're pouring it, and it's spilling all over the place, and they're, like, hanging all over it.

But you're just, like, so excited, aren't you, to buy that lemonade. Why is that? Because we are actually built something inside of us. There are actually chemicals inside of us, neurotransmitters that make us feel good. God created us that way.

We actually have dopamine and serotonin that is released in our bodies, and endorphins that, like, painkillers, you know, it's better than any drug. Really, God has a natural drug built in us to make us feel good because we were built and made to be generous. God made you that way. That's why Proverbs 11.25 says, The generous will prosper.

Those who refresh others will also be, what? Refreshed. You will be refreshed when you're generous. And in Proverbs 21.26, Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give.

We love to give. It's fun for us. It's exciting for us. And there's something fun about it. That's why we do things like the turkey drop.

We started off just bringing in turkeys, and that was good enough, you know. We had a truck outside, and people would bring in turkeys, and we'd make a big deal about it, you know. And they're like, let's have more fun. Why don't we just have food and a celebration with giving? Giving should be fun.

We have these random acts of kindness cards. You have orange cards on the table near you. Just go out and bless somebody. Do something fun. Give somebody a good tip or have fun with it.

We actually had a movie. We were at a restaurant one time when a movie star walked into place. Y'all remember John Locke from Lost? He was there eating on the table over from us. Miranda and I were there.

And, you know, our table decided just to pay for him and his family's food, you know. And I was like, wow, we even do it for movie stars, you know. It doesn't even have to be the poor, right? The poor is not just, they need Jesus too. And it was just an exciting time to do that.

We can have fun with these things. So, let's, you know, the generous are happy. We're happy to do it. We love to do these things. The generous are also compassionate, okay?

Generous people are in tune with the injustice of the world. Generous people want to be compassionate. They see problems and they want to meet those needs. And wherever the church is, as I mentioned before, communities are changed. Environments are changed.

Things are changing. It can actually make a city better by virtue of the churches being here by Salt Church being in Virginia Beach it is making our community a better place because we see the needs and we want to meet those needs and we have a lot of ways here at at salt that we we meet the needs of of people during COVID we did we did so much we didn't want to sit still we couldn't meet we we we even even this past year we bounced around a lot but we kept doing we kept giving and we were able to give to to the elderly that weren't able to get out of the house you know we dropped groceries off at their at their steps we we've helped we at Christmas time we we nominate families in here that we take care of families right here in our church because we believe in taking care of our own not only taking care of our community but our own the people here that don't have a good Christmas because they just they're struggling and they're not even asking for us and we blessed three families last year with Christmas you know so we we want we see the needs and we meet those needs and we meet those needs and and this past week we were just sitting around the table and here's my heart guys my vision like I want to know what this city needs I want to sit down with the mayor of the city I want to sit down with the city council just what would shake the city what can salt do because it's not really about us just building a building although we're planning we're building a building we need a institution to work out of obviously it may makes it a lot healthier situation but it's not just about a building in a community where we're expecting people to come in right it's about us going and meeting the people where they are and I was talking with my team just this I just want to I want God what does this city need let's meet them there and uh and we we got an email just the other week from uh Betty Williams Elementary if you're not familiar they're just a a hurting uh herding uh herding uh community uh here in Virginia Beach but uh and some of our people have been involved there and and and the social worker that works with that school contacted us and and and and and she she contacted Christine she says listen I don't I know maybe this is a lost cause we've called a lot of people but listen I I need we we need people to help us we've got we're wanting to put dinners together for families in need in this community we've got kids that don't have dads in the home and don't have moms in the home we have kids that are pretty much orphans that are on the streets and we're trying to figure out how to help them and look it's lost cause and Letty was almost in tears when she was talking to Christina about this and she says I I just don't know I know y'all are doing the turkey drop I saw it online and and and I just wanted to contact you and see if if there's anything you can do and and we we just you know obviously we can't help everybody in the city but all of us felt drawn to this so we're providing 20 families at uh at Betty Williams uh uh elementary this this this this season this Thanksgiving season we're just gonna we're just gonna bless them amen we're gonna do that we're gonna do that and we're gonna get involved a little more over there we feel God leading us to that to that school and Jesse and I were talking about the youth he handles our youth here and and uh we were we were in the coffee shop a couple of weeks ago and I'm just sharing my heart he's sharing his heart and we're like you know what we can't just expect them to show up we can't expect the youth to show up and we walked right out that that building talking about it and we saw you 20 or 30 kids out there just hanging out in the park and I'm telling you guys we we we've we've you know I've been I've been over there to the pizza place eating with some friends and stuff and I watched these kids come up because I've connected with some of these kids some of them know me from the surf community and these kids don't have anywhere to go and they have these red eyes and they're getting involved in drugs and heroin's terrible at the oceanfront and they're getting sucked into these relationships and and and and we're like why would they do that well they don't have moms or they don't have dads that are really at home and they're just kind of here and there hanging out with their friends what if they they had somewhere to come can we meet them where they are and so so we're we're we're considering what who can we partner with in this community what can we do to bring these kids in to draw them in where can we meet them rather than expecting them to come to meet us right we want to go out we see the need these kids need to be saved these kids need to be helped they we want to capture our kids and I have a real heart for for kids and teenagers because if we don't catch them before they get to adult age where will they be and what will they do and how much harder it will for them to be rescued by the beloved Jesus Christ so those are things that the generous the generous are compassionate we look for ways to need and here's what the needs of the community and Proverbs 21 says this if a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor he too will cry out and not be answered right let's listen to the needs around us three the generous are blessed we're blessed we're actually blessed when we give God blesses us now I want to be careful with this because many of you have been hurt by the church because of the five offerings in church service and and you're going to be if you give this if you give this you're going to get double back you know and and and you're going to get you know and people are investing to get back if you put five if you see five hundred dollars in this offer you can get thousand some of you get fifteen hundred and two thousand and and and and people are like oh yeah and you're giving but we don't want that to be the reason you give let me tell you you are blessed and and maybe financially you might be financially blessed I can tell you and I've got stories and I may not have time to share them today all the stories of people that are blessed financially that have decided to give and take this next step well I'll just go ahead and share one with you yeah why not why not yeah I challenged uh uh someone on our leadership team on tithing even even you know they weren't tithing I'm like well how can you expect you're like well you know that that we expect our church to be faithful tithers tithers and givers and be generous and and you're not even tithing so she felt the need to tithe she did it and she was kind of mad at me I mean it wasn't it was it was a very pleasant conversation but you know when you talk about money that's kind of a grip that's a grip on us right it's always hard to talk about money from the pulpit some of you here today all know it's one of those sermons you know I chose the one day when we're going to talk about generosity one series and and I promise you this is it's like the one time of the year we actually do a series on this and uh but but but she says okay I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it I'm gonna test God at this she tests God the very next day she arrives at their private school ...were to have three kids in school, and because her husband was, mother was having some medical issues, the principal came out and says, the Lord has led us, it was a Christian school, the Lord has led us to cover your tuition for the entire month, right? So God does bless, okay? God blesses financially when we do that, but that's not, that shouldn't be our motivation, okay?

We shouldn't be led to do it because, oh, you know, you should do it. And it's not that. God just wants you to be blessed, and that could be blessed in any way. There's all kinds of ways we can be blessed. We're blessed to be a blessing, right?

And we're very blessed people. And here's what Proverbs 22 says, blessed are those who are generous because they feed the poor, right? We bless the feed, and it's not just the homeless, it's not just the poor that we think are poor in America, it's the poor in spirit. It's the poor, it's the poor, those who need relationships, those who need spiritual food. These are the poor.

We bless people. And 28, 27, it says, whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed. It actually says they'll be cursed. And so we want to be generous. We are blessed when we are generous.

But when we're stingy, our world's become small, and God can't work with us. Fourth, the generous are rewarded, okay? The generous are rewarded. Now, this is another one I want to be careful with. Okay, first of all, I want to say, you don't have to do anything to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

It is free. God is the most generous God that He gave His Son, Jesus. And this is what Christianity, this is what we build our whole belief system on. And if this crumbles, everything else crumbles, that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead and proved that He was God. And He is the Son of God who gave His life for our sins.

And we can know Him as a free gift, nothing that we earn. And God doesn't have to reward us because He's already rewarded us. We shouldn't want anything else or need anything else. But God's so good, He does it anyway. He rewards us.

And the Bible talks about rewards. And one day we're before God, and there will be reward. There'll be like this reward ceremony. And God says, I'm going to reward you. In fact, here's what Proverbs says.

If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord, and He will repay you. He will repay you. And I picture us in heaven one day, you know, before God, and God's got this big reward ceremony going on. You know, like where you get the ribbons, and you get the trophies, and we're going to be so in awe of God when we're in heaven. It's like, God, we don't deserve anything.

It's okay, God. No, God, I just want you, and I'm here with you, and I'm experiencing you. And God's going to be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is my time. This is my turn.

I got the stage, and I'm rewarding you for the good that you did in this life. Proverbs 19, 17, if you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord, but the Lord will repay you. Revelation says it like this, look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all the people according to their deeds. So, we ought to be legacy givers, legacy life. We need to live a legacy, something that lives past us.

I love that idea of legacy giving. If we give towards the future, if we give towards future generations, I love that idea that we live beyond our life because what we do for ourselves will die with us, but what we do for others lives beyond us. You need to write that down. What we do for ourselves will die with us, okay? Be a small world, but what we do for others will live with us.

Legacy givers, gift of giving, ability to... Some people even have the ability to make money. You can actually accelerate the vision of Salt Church by just being a giver. Psalm 112 says, They share freely and give generously to those in need, and their good deeds will be remembered for what? Forever.

Forever. Our deeds, what we do, and it's not just money. It's other things, and I'll talk about those in just a second. They will be influenced. They will have influence and honor.

And whatever you have in your life, and I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about everything. It's when you give yourself. It's when you sacrifice everything that you are for the legacy that you're going to leave. Everybody wants to live for something more than an hour.

Well, and he wants to make you rich in every way. In fact, 2 Corinthians 9.11 says it like this. You will be rich in every way. Not just financially, okay?

So he's not talking about money here. He's like in every way so that you can be generous. What? In every occasion. Every moment of your life, and your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

So let me just give you just a few things, and then we'll close this message. Generosity, we can be generous in many ways. We can be generous with our time, number one. Be generous with our time. Sometimes time is more valuable than money.

Did you know that? Sometimes your time, the give, time, cleaning. Jesse comes in here and cleans the bathrooms before we have service in the morning. Amen? I mean, and that's important to us because we want you guys to go into a bathroom that smells nice and is clean, right?

You can set up signs. There's people that are doing children's ministry. They're giving their time so that your kids can have a pleasant environment, a fun environment, a safe environment to worship while you worship. You can be generous with your talent, okay? Some of you are like, I'm not talented.

Well, yes, you are. You are talented. Everybody's a 10 and something, okay? You might not be American Idol talented, okay? And some of you aren't, so don't even try, okay?

Don't even go on the show. Don't even try to audition, please. Don't be a William Hung or anything like that, you know? Like, just, just, but you're talented in something. Some of you can fix things.

Some of you are good administrators. Some of you see things that others can't see because you're good at something. You're talented. Everybody is. And we believe in this church.

We want to give you that opportunity to identify these grace gifts that God gives us. He calls them grace gifts in Scripture. Kairos, grace gifts. Everybody is endowed. It's something that you can do, something that you have, something that just feels right, that fits you.

It's like a coat that you put on. This is mine. I got this. This is my thing. A gift, a grace gift.

You can be generous with your touch. Now, this is just something very, very, very simple. Your touch. You can write a letter to somebody. Send a text to somebody.

It costs you nothing to just touch somebody's life in some way. A smile. Sympathize with them. Speak up. Serve.

And then, at times, sometimes you do need to sacrifice. Sacrifice a little bit. Do something that does cost you something. Touch somebody's life and then generous in your treasure. And that is your money.

And take what you have. And we believe in budgeting. We teach that throughout our church, you know, in our series. You know, we budget out, as believers, we budget out that first 10%, and then we do what we can. Now, what you don't have, you can't do, right?

So, if you're not wealthy, you can't give extravagantly, okay? But you can do something, right? But what we do is we teach, you know, you do 10%, and then beyond that is offering and giving. And we try to extend that. My wife and I, we up that percentage every year.

A little more. A little more. A little more. And we test God out. And God always blesses us.

And He does amazing things with it. And if God is prompting you to do something, maybe it's something like a big tip for somebody at a restaurant. Is God prompting you to just do something for somebody? If you're treasure, it's your treasure. Luke 6, 38 and closing.

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. It will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, and this is really important. And this isn't just talking about money.

This is general generosity, okay? The context of the scripture, a lot of people use it for money. And that's a part of it, but it's bigger. It's bigger than money, okay? For the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

If that's the case, I want to do whatever I can. Whatever I can do. And let me say this. If you live this way, if you live this way, you will never regret it, okay? If you live with this generosity in mind, you will never regret it.

If you live with this idea that I am blessed to be a blessing, you can put God to the test. He even tells you, test me at this. Test me at this. And he blesses. The name of this church is Salt.

Salt wasn't just a name, a cool kind of hipster beach name for a church that we just came up with. It was prayer and intentionality. Because when Jesus mentioned Salt, there was a lot of people on the side of a hill listening to him speak. And they were nobodies in society. They weren't kings.

They weren't rulers. And in that day, you had to be somebody to make a difference. And Jesus radically changed that perspective by saying, you are the salt of the earth. And you are the light. We have a saying here that says, salt always makes a difference.

And a little bit of salt goes a long way. You are salt. Why? Because Jesus says you are salt. And he, a little bit of you, but a whole lot of God inside of you can go a long way.

Imagine a world where we all got that. Imagine a world where we all realized that we are salt. That we are light unto this world. That we would be generous. That we would all step up.

And in such a time as this, where it's so dark. People are scared. The economy is here and there. People's money is kind of going here and there. And we don't know what to think anymore.

People are divided on how to do it. And what better way than to step up and be generous the way Jesus calls us to be. Generous, generous people. But like the bee. Because we are here.

Working. Loving. Reaching. Touching. Never think you're not making a difference.

God, you're a little bit. You're a little service. You're a little act. Father, challenge us today, God. We want and desire to be more like you as believers, God.

You've given us everything. You've given us hope. And you've given us life. Today, we're going to take the next step. Wherever we are in our spiritual walk.

A little closer to you. Stretch us a little further. Because we truly believe that we are salt. And salt always makes a difference. And in that same spirit of prayer that maybe some of you that have come here today.

It's your first time. You may not even know why you're here. Maybe you've fallen out of church. Maybe you've never come to church before. Maybe you were disenchanted by the church.

Whatever it is. Can I just tell you? Don't put all that aside today. Because Jesus gave the greatest gift of generosity. His only son.

So that you could have life. Have life. Not just life, but life above. So why not consider Jesus Christ. And his generous gift that is free for you.

If you would just pray this with me. Father. Today, I'm prompted, Lord. Just to open my heart to you. I give you my life.

Come into my heart. Make me new, God. I love you, Lord. I realize that you had died for my sins. And that you live today.

Will you come into my heart and change me from the inside out? I surrender my life to you. Can y'all give God a hand clap of praise? Thank you, Jesus. God bless you.

God bless you. Thank you for being with us today.