Summer Devotionals - wk 5

Our Summer Sermon Series and Summer Bible Reading Plan will walk together through some of the foundational practices and invitations of the Christian life: following Jesus, loving our neighbor, forgiveness, generosity, prayer, peace, community, gratitude, and more. This isn’t about adding more pressure or more “religious homework” to your life. It’s about creating just enough space for Jesus to meet us in the middle of our everyday lives.

Transcript

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This summer resurrection for our back to the basics Bible reading plan, we're not asking you to do more. We're inviting you to do what matters most. To give a little space each day, each week, for Jesus to shape your heart in a new way. Through scripture. This week we're in 2 Corinthians, which is part of a number of letters that we think Paul wrote to this church in Corinth, a church that needed to be reminded a few times about what it means to follow Jesus. But it was also a church that was generous. In fact, we read in 2 Corinthians 9 You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us. I've been in vocational church ministry for almost two decades, almost as long as Pastor Ryan. And I have met some incredibly generous people. People that gave financial gifts that would make you uncomfortable, people that give up their time. And in fact, I I've met people who have given in such a way with time and talent that I feel as if I could never in a hundred lifetimes give as much as them. And what's interesting is the most generous people I've met, I mean, like the really, really generous people, they're hardly ever the most wealthy. They're just people who see a need and they go to meet it. I don't know where you are today. Whatever money or generosity or serving in certain ways is shared in the church can be confusing. At resurrection, what matters to us is that you recognize that God has gifted you in some way to support the ministry of the church. And as Pastor Ryan reminded us this past spring, the church is all of us, not this building. We leave here as the church, as the ecclesia, to go and be generous in the way that we forgive, to go and be generous in the way that we love, that we give mercy, that we offer peace, to be generous with the gifts given to us. I pray that you can find an area this week where perhaps being generous is hard. And you can pray for some guidance, pray for some courage, be generous with a word, generous with your time, and perhaps generous with your talents. We're to be a people of generosity, to surprise the world with how generous we are. As always, when you are in these readings, I pray that you are looking for new things noticed, that you're opening yourself up to being changed and shaped by God in a new way. And that you're excited for next week. Thank you for walking this journey with all of us. Love and peace.