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Well, um excited to be here with you guys this morning. Uh my name is Harley Rethel, and I am on staff here. I'm one of the pastors here at Point Community Church. And um we're going through a series right now, which is kind of um an interesting one in that everybody when they when they approach the topic of money, especially in church, it kind of makes everybody a little bit tense. So I want to help us all out here this morning, and I want to ask for you to take a deep breath in with me this morning, okay. You ready? Gonna take a deep breath in, hold it, and then a sigh as we let it out. Ah that was pretty bad, and we need to try that again. Okay. Deep breath in, hold it, and a sigh as you'll let it out. Okay, that's the sigh of relief because this is the third and last week of the series, okay? So we won't have to talk. That was a joke. You don't have to talk about it anymore. Okay. Um the reason we're talking about money, actually, is because the Bible has a lot to say about this. All through the Old Testament, all through the New Testament, this is a big deal because our finances tend to be something that we can put our hope, our trust, our meaning, our purpose, our enjoyment. We can put all of these things on it. And when we put our hope and our identity on those things, it starts to become a God. And God realizes that. And so throughout, throughout the Bible, all through the pages of this book, you'll find truths about finances. You'll find truths about how we're called to handle our money. And how it's not meant to rule our lives, but God is meant to be the one we submit to, not to our finances. And so these last three weeks we've gone through several different kinds of topics, if you would. The first was ownership. We talked about this idea of, okay, God owns everything, and we're just called to be stewards of what he's given us, okay? So God owns everything, including our breath, our health. I mean, he gives us all that we have. As a Christian, I firmly believe that everything I have is a gift from God. And yet sometimes I tend to grab hold tightly to what he's given me, and I don't want to let go. And so this the conversation on ownership was a really good one. Then last week, Hosue got to talk to us about contentment, how we need to find contentment in Christ and Christ alone. And we all struggle with this. There's all things that we think we want, or even things that we think we need. I I have a funny little um story on that. About five or six weeks ago, it was the women's retreat, and my wife Liz went out of town for the women's retreat, and I was at home with our kids. I have a two and a half-year-old son and identical twin nine-month-old girls. And so I was like, okay, I'm gonna be super dad here. I'm gonna go out to the store and see what that's like. So I loaded up all the kids and then I loaded unloaded this huge stroller that we have and loaded them all up, you know, line them up, and we walked in looking like, you know, we came from the circus or something like that. But uh we're walking through the store, and as we're going through the store, my two and a half-year-old son starts seeing stuff that he likes, right? I'm sure some of you experienced this before, but we're going through the store, and my my son's quite loud like me, and uh, we're going through the store and he says, Oreos! I need Oreos, and I'm like, Traffid buddy, you don't need Oreos, you want Oreos. And he's like, Oreos, I want, I need Oreos, and we kind of go back and forth. No, no, no, you want Oreos, and then, okay, I want Oreos, and this conversation goes back and forth. And uh embarrassingly, a lot of people around us heard this conversation. But the funny thing is, that isn't far removed from how we act sometimes with the things that we want or we think we need, right? I mean, honestly, there's things in my life that sometimes I get obsessed with that I think I need, and really it's just a want that I have, it's a desire that I have, and it gets out of control. So we talked about contentment and how we need to find our contentment in God, in Christ. That's where we find our true contentment and my meaning. If we try to look to anything else, it's gonna fall far short of finding us truly content. Well, this third week, I get to talk to you about generosity. And I'm excited to talk about this, but I'm kind of a little bit nervous too, because if I had the choice to pick one of the three, it wouldn't be this week. It would be one of the other weeks. Not that I'm an expert on the other weeks, but I'm definitely not an expert on this one, okay? So generosity is a piece that I just want to say right up here at the front is this is something I personally struggle with, and this is something that God's working on in my life. And it's actually been really helpful for me to kind of go through the passage we're gonna look at today and to think about this because I really believe God's doing some work in my heart on this area. So, what I need for us to do is I need for us to pray right here at the start and ask God to just kind of lead us through this time, that he would speak through me. So if you wouldn't mind bowing your heads, we're just gonna pray one more time here and and ask God for his favor and his blessing. God, I just pray that we would have open minds, open hearts to your working and your moving in our lives today. As as we read this scripture, as I speak, I pray that you'd be working in our hearts, in our minds. Uh I pray that we'd be open and honest with you this morning. I pray that you would speak clearly to us. And uh I just pray that this wouldn't be time that we just come in and go through the motions of church. I ask that you would speak clearly through me, and that in this time we would really learn and grow in our faith and our understanding of you and the gospel. Thank you. Amen. Generosity, that's what we're talking about. Generosity stems from having an eternal perspective, which I believe itself comes from having a gospel perspective. Now, that's you know, a lot of words and a and a lot of uh hidden meaning in all of that, but that's basically what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna talk about how generosity, I really believe, comes from us knowing and understanding the gospel and how that helps us to see things in the right light. If um I was to kind of rephrase it, I might say that the gospel influences our generosity. I don't know if you guys have ever been around somebody generous, but I find when I'm around generous people, it tends to influence me in a good way to be generous. Has anybody experienced that? You're around somebody that's really generous, and you're like, man, that's cool. I want to be more like that. Anybody experience that? Okay, good. So you know what I'm talking about. I was uh thinking about this, and sadly came to my mind uh an episode of The Office. I'm not one of those people who've seen every episode of the TV show The Office, but there was one episode I saw where two of the main characters, Dwight and Andy, are going back and forth trying to get become more liked by everybody in the office. They want to be the most popular, you know, work co-worker in the office. And it kind of starts with them like outdoing each other at the door, like, you go first, no, no, let me get the door for you, you know, and this this back and forth that happens. And it escalates to the point, as you can probably imagine, where they're literally catering in lunch for the whole office and breakfast. Like they're trying to outdo each other by buying everybody's favor by being generous with their food, okay? So when I talk about influence, that's not the type of thing I'm talking about. When I talk about influence, I'm talking about the right motive that comes from the influence of the gospel in our lives. Now, I'm gonna throw out this word gospel a couple of times here today. Uh, and and we did a whole series on the gospel. If you weren't here for that, I'd encourage you to get online and to listen to some of those those messages on the gospel, because that's something we hope that every time you come to Point Community Church, you hear at least some of the gospel, or all of the gospel, uh, even if it's a brief little little explanation of that. So, because I'm going to talk about this word, the gospel, a lot, I want to give you again a quick summation of what that means if you don't mind. So, the gospel, when I say that, we're talking about the story of the Bible. We're talking about the story of God written throughout history and throughout the scriptures. And there's four key elements. I've said this before, I'll say it again. There's four key elements to the gospel. The first is creation. As a Christian, I believe that God created us all. We were created by God and for God, okay? So God created us to live with him in perfection, but he didn't want to create robots. He gave us free will, he gave us choice, and we chose to reject God, and that created a separation between us and God. He was perfect. We had sin in our lives. This rejection of God, we call it sin. The evidence of sin is all around us. You turn on the news, you'll see sin, like the evidences of sin in like death, pain, fear, all the horrible things you see in the world. That's that's the effects of sin. So the first element, like I said, is creation. The second is fall. We were separated from by God. But throughout the scriptures, we're told of this redemptive story. And the redemptive story simply tells us that Jesus came to rescue us. We couldn't fix our own problems, we couldn't get ourselves back to God. God couldn't ignore our sins, but he set a plan in action where he sent Jesus to come and to save us. There's a great scripture that a lot of you know. John 3 16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shouldn't perish but have eternal life. And so that's what we believe in. The Bible also says that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you'll be saved. And so as a Christian, what I've done and what you can do if you're not somebody who's put your trust in Jesus, is simply say, Hey, God, I believe you're real, I believe this story of the Bible, and I need you to come and to save me. And that puts us right with God again. So you got creation, fall, redemption, and then restoration is the piece where we hope in the future in Jesus coming back. We know that the scriptures tell us that Jesus is coming back, and that we will see a world again that's the way it's meant to be, perfect and right, the way that God intended it to be. And that's what we hope in. So when I say gospel, I'm talking about all of that. Now I know that's kind of a lot, but when we throw out the word gospel, it simply means the good news, the news of the Bible, the story of the Bible. And like I've said already, we're going to talk about how the gospel influences us in this area of finances. Now it's not enough for me to just talk about this all morning. I want for us to look in the Bible and see what the Bible has to say about this piece of generosity. So if you wouldn't mind turning with me to 1 Timothy chapter 6. We're going back to 1 Timothy chapter 6. If you don't have a Bible, there may be one in the seat in front of you, just um kind of in that little tray. Don't steal your neighbor's Bible, but if it's if it looks like the church's Bible, feel free to grab that and use that. Would encourage you to read along with me this morning. Use your phone if you have the Bible on your phone. That works too. 1 Timothy chapter 6, we're going to start in verse 17, where is where Nick started us two weeks ago, but we're going to go on and focus on verse 18 and 19. Okay, here we go. Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good reserve for the age to come, so that they may take a hold of life that is real. I don't know about you, but when I hear that, I want to take a hold of life that is real. The scripture is saying one I want to get really clear with you guys. The scripture is not saying that it's wrong for us to enjoy the things that God richly blesses us with. Look here back at verse 17. We're not going to stay on this, but I just want to want to show you in verse 17 it says, Trust in God, but on God who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. Sometimes when people come to church, they think, oh, we're all down on, you know, you can't have fun and God doesn't want you to enjoy what you have. No, no. The Bible doesn't say that. The Bible does say that we need to enjoy what He's given us. But there's also this piece of generosity that helps us with this contentment and with this ownership things that we've been talking about the last few weeks. And this isn't a new idea, this isn't a new concept. If you were to look with me into the Old Testament, we could pull a whole bunch of scriptures out that talk about generosity. I want to read one for you. Proverbs 11 24. It should be up on the screen for you. It says this one person gives freely, yet gains more. Another person holds withholds what is right, only to become poor. And again, this is just one scripture of many, but this whole concept of generosity is not a new one. And so there's a couple of truths that I want to pull out of this scripture this morning in verse 18 and 19. And they're not like they're not crazy, like hard to understand concepts. The first one is simply this be generous. So we'll throw that up on the slide for you this morning. Be generous. The first call that we see here in verse 18 is so clear. The call is to be generous, to be generous people. Look back at the scripture with me, if you wouldn't mind. Verse 18. It says this instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, and to be willing to share. Okay. If I was to you guys get the concept behind here, where where Paul's saying, hey, be generous. And when he says this, he's saying it in a bunch of different ways. If I could retranslate this scripture, I could translate it to the easy to understand Harley translation. It would sound something like this Be generous, be generous, be generous, and be generous. Like simple, I mean, look at those words. Do what is good, rich in good works, willing to share and to be generous. I mean, he's essentially saying the same thing in four different ways, right? And so my question to you all this morning is simply this. Why is it so important for us to be generous? Why would Paul, when he's writing this letter to his friend Timothy about, you know, instructions to the rich, why would he say to them four different ways the exact same thing, or slight variations of the same thing? Why would he do that? And I believe today that it's because generosity is the antidote to our issues with contentment and ownership. Those are the things we talked about the last two weeks. We talked about ownership and contentment, how we struggle with this ownership thing, how we struggle to be content. And I want to challenge you guys this morning that I don't think it's just enough for us to say, okay, God owns everything, and so I'm going to be a good steward of what He's given me. That's a great thought, but if you're struggling with that, it may be good for you, it may be good for me, it is good for me, to put in action the opposite kind of motion that moves me away from struggling with ownership. You understand what I'm saying? Generosity kind of helps me put in action what I believe the scriptures are telling me about ownership. The same's true of contentment. When I struggle with contentment, if I start to be generous, I believe the scriptures are telling me that it's kind of helping me to move away from thinking that everything is a want and a need that I have that I need to fulfill. Does that make sense? So God's calling us to be generous, and he's being very clear because he's saying it in four different ways. The reason that we struggle with this generosity piece is because all of us, or at least most of us, if you're anything like me, we have this insatiable, meaning unsatisfiable hunger for more. And this is really what Hostway was talking about last week. There's always something more that we want to fill our appetite with. Now, appetites aren't a bad thing. God created appetites, amen? Amen. I like eating. Uh, there was food in the Garden of Eden. Appetites are okay. But sin, I really believe, sin has corrupted our appetites in a way that, and I'm not talking about food here. I'm talking about how there's always something more that we want. There's something more, we're never quite fulfilled by what we have. And so it's just a hard thing. I was really reminded of that this week, and I want to show you guys something funny. It was just funny that this happened this week. I um some of you know that I I really am into mountain biking. That's kind of a hobby of mine. And actually, part of the hobby has been the last couple of years, I started buying and selling um mountain bikes, and uh I did a little bit of that kind of just as a hobby, and then it kind of became more of a hot than a hobby. I did it for a little bit of work, and then now it's become a hobby again. But anyway, I was buying and selling um high-end mountain bikes, and I decided to bring this in as an example to you guys this morning. This is the wheel off my mountain bike. Everybody say, ooh. Yeah, it's nice and uh nice and dusty from the trail and kind of gross. Thankfully it doesn't have any mud on it. But uh, this is the wheel from my mountain bike. Now, I recently acquired a bike. I I'm always buying and selling bikes, but I acquired a bike that had this wheel set on it. The other ones at home I didn't want to bring to, but it had this wheel set on it. And for the type of riding that I do here in Austin, this is literally the best wheel that you can buy. Like you couldn't go out and spend more money, you couldn't go out and fire find a better spec wheel for your bike. And quite appropriately, appropriately, it's made by a company called Envy. Okay, so if you see somebody, if you see somebody on the trail rocking this stuff, you're like, okay, this guy's like really serious about riding, or he's got way too much money, okay? So um, but anyway, I was fortunate enough to get these on a bike that I was buying and selling, so I kept the wheels, and these were the best wheels that you could buy. This week, I was on the computer, and uh as I was on the computer, a little thing pops up and says, new Envy wheels launched. And so I click on the link, and before I know it, I'm I'm reading about how these wheels have just been superseded. I only got them a few weeks ago, and now they're already superseded. There's something bigger, better, lighter, stronger, and so the the quest for more continues. And I just show you that today, it's a silly example from my life, but I just show you that today to show you that what we have will never fully satisfy us. There is always something more, and that's why I say that our appetite is so unsatisfiable. And the way for us to fight against this is, and and the point I'm trying to make here today is that we need to starve out the appetite. If we fulfill the appetite, it just tends to actually increase our appetite. You know what I'm saying? But if we can starve it out and actually move in the opposite direction, using the antidote of generosity, I feel like that would move us a long way in the way that God wants us to live, relying fully on Him and not on our stuff. Does that make sense? So I just want to be really clear with you guys. Generosity is hugely important, and that's why the scriptures talk about it so clearly, is because it really helps us move away from our issues with contentment and with ownership. Now I could stop the message here today and say, okay, everybody, we're gonna go home at this point. And some of you would probably be like, okay, I'm inspired to be generous. The scripture's very clear. It says four different ways to be generous. I'm gonna be generous. I'm gonna make it happen. Get her done, you know? Whatever. I'm gonna make this happen, okay? Was that a good Texas accent? I'm trying. Oh I guess he's from Georgia, right? Uh whatever. Uh anyway, we're digressing. We could really try and make it happen, okay? Be generous. Okay, I get it. Some of it some of us would be like, whatever, dude. But uh, some of us would be like, okay, I'm gonna try and be generous. But I don't know about you. I'm struggling still if I stop here with the motive for why would I want to be generous? How am I motivated? It'd be just me trying to, in a vacuum, like be generous, be what we call white knuckling, you know, where you just grit and try and make things harder. But I'm so grateful that verse 19 is a part of this text. Because verse 19 really helps me know and understand what the motive is for my generosity. Why is it that Paul says four times that we're to be generous unless there's a motive behind that generosity, that plea for generosity. So if you wouldn't mind reading with me, let's go back to verse 19. I'll just back up into 18 a little bit as we read. To be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share, storing up for themselves, this is verse 19, a good reserve or foundation for the age to come, so that they may take a hold of life that is real. Our next fill in the blank here today is that true generosity flows from having an eternal perspective. An eternal perspective. Paul isn't the first person to talk about this. Jesus was preaching this really profound sermon called the Sermon on the Mount, and in Matthew chapter 6, I'm going to read for you just a little excerpt from that sermon. He says this don't collect for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither m moth nor rust destroys, and where neither where thieves don't break in and steal, for where your treasure is, There, your heart will be also. It's essentially saying the same thing, right? Like, where to invest in what's to come and not get so bogged down and concerned about the here and now. And so as I hear that, it's like this breath of fresh air, because I realize that my generosity, this call for generosity, comes from me having an eternal perspective, seeing things through the right way, knowing and understanding that life here is short, and that eternity is more important. I want to remind you of a couple things that the Bible makes really clear. This life that we have here, as much as we might like it or hate it, is temporary. This isn't the end game. If life was all about just this, that would be kind of lame. I mean, that'd be kind of sad. There's much more than just this. The Bible's very clear that we're designed to live for eternity. The second truth that the scriptures make very clear is that we cannot take our stuff with us. Those wheels aren't rolling into heaven with me. I mean, I'm not, I can't take any of my stuff with me to heaven. And so what we have here is temporary. What we have in eternity is eternal. So again, just want to remind you, eternity is long, the here and now is short. And so if we have the right perspective, knowing and understanding that this life is short, I really believe that we start to see and have the right motive for generosity. You tracking with me? Does that make sense? This this whole idea of having an eternal perspective, I think, really comes from knowing and understanding the gospel. Listen to what the writer of James says. James chapter 4, verse 14 says this. You don't even know what tomorrow will bring, what your life will be, for you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Think about that. That's how our lives are described. Smoke that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Life is a gift. And most of us, you know, if we're fortunate enough to live 70, 80, 90 years, I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem very long to me anymore. The older I get, I used to hate it when people said this, but the older I get, the shorter, you know, faster things go. I I hated it when people said that, but it really is true. Like the years click by, and what we have here is short. But as I start to see that eternity is long and the here and now is short, I'm not so clingy to my stuff. I'm not so clingy to what God's given me, and I'm freed up to be generous as God has called me to be. So I want to ask you guys, we've talked about two very simple points from this scripture. Be generous, have an eternal perspective so that you can be generous. That's essentially what we've said. What does this look like practically? Because I don't know about you, but I I can get up here and say, hey, have an eternal perspective and be generous. And we could all go home, and that's kind of hard to digest. So I want to get down and kind of break this down a little bit and say, what does this look like? And as I was thinking on this as I was praying on this this last week, the first thing that came very clearly to my mind was this thought that we have to focus on the gospel daily. My challenge for me and my challenge for every one of you sitting here today is to spend some time thinking on the gospel daily. Let me tell you why. I think if each of us were to spend some time daily focusing in on the gospel, that that wouldn't just affect our generosity, although it would, it would also affect every other area of our life. But as specifically with this generosity piece, as we start to think on the gospel and be like, okay, the gospel has saved me. My hope isn't in earth or this temporary time that I have here on earth, my hope is actually in heaven, as I start to think that every day, that's gonna naturally help me be generous as I have that eternal perspective. So my challenge for you, and and getting down to the nuts and bolts, is to really find some space every day. If you don't already have a quiet time, that's what we as Christians call that, you know, getting some space with God every day. I really want to challenge you to get some space every day. For me, it works best in the morning. I get too distracted if I try and do it later in the day. Other people can do other things, but I get some quiet time in the morning. My challenge for you, my challenge for me is that we would spend some time during that quiet space to reflect on the gospel. And what that would look like for me would simply be sitting down and thinking on the thought that God created me, that he saved me from my sin, that he redeemed me and that and that my hope is in eternity, and maybe praying out some of that, saying, Hey God, thank you for today. Thank you for the gift of life today that you've given me. Thank you that my hope isn't in the here and now, but it's in eternity. Show me how to love like you have loved me. Thank you that you came and saved me. Like starting to pray through some of those things. My challenge is to each of us to do that. And I really believe as we do that, as we get a right perspective on the here and now and on in eternity, this generosity piece is gonna naturally take care of itself. I really do believe that. And you know what? Like I said earlier, it's gonna also help us in our marriage, um, in our work, in our I mean, you name it, the gospel applies to every area of our lives. So my challenge to you is to let the gospel come in and permeate every part of your life daily, especially this week. We're heading up to Easter. I mean, it's all about the gospel. So at least this week, give it a try. Every morning, let's let's just say, hey God, I'm gonna remind myself of the gospel, the good news that you came and you saved me from myself, that my hope isn't in the here and now. That's my first practical challenge. A couple of other things. Now, I I don't have the ability to know exactly for all of you what your resources, your gifts, your talents, um, your skill sets are, but we're called to be generous with all of those things. But as we talk about this money matters and this rethinking money series, I just think it's really important for us to think through this whole money piece and how we're called to be generous in that. So I want to talk practically about that in the last two things. Regular giving, that's something that uh for me as as a teenager, I got my first job, and I was like, I wasn't old enough to drive yet. My mum would drive me to the pizza store. I worked at Pizza Haven and uh had an awesome blue and red shirt that I wore and a horrible cap. But anyway, it was my first job, and it was it taught me a lot of things. And one of the things I learned driving back and forth to work with mum, we'd have conversations, and one of the conversations we had was just about this idea of giving to God, like giving a tenth or a tithe, if you would, regular giving out of what God was providing for me. And so I started doing that as a young man, and so that kind of set up a pattern through college, even when I didn't have a lot of money. I'd always just automatically do that. Say, God, thank you, and and kind of hand that off. And so that set up a pattern in my life where that's just something I joyfully get to do, and I love getting to do that. And so that's become a pattern in my life, and if that's true of you too, that's that's great. But but for some of you here this morning, maybe this step of generosity just means you you taking this generosity piece and saying, okay, I'm just gonna release control here, trust God, and say, you know, I'm gonna start regularly giving. Maybe that's a practical step for you. The practical step for me is really the offering piece, okay? So the Bible talks about tithes and offerings, and offering is something over and above. And I'm gonna be real honest with you, this is where I struggle, okay? I'm a saver, I'm somebody who likes to like, you know, be good with money and and frugal and all that sort of stuff. And so this is where I really struggle from time to time. And God's been working on my wife and Liz and I in this area. We're talking about, you know, this making room for more initiative where we need to build some more space for the kids. And we've been praying about, hey, God, help us to be generous. How do you want us to be a part of that? What do you want us to give financially? And so we've been praying and talking about that, and it's been really stretching us in this area, just being honest with you guys. The other, another piece is that uh we like to have people in our home. We love um having people over, you know, whether that's people from church or neighbors or friends, whoever. We like having people over, feeding them and doing all of that. We have a life group that meets in our home. We love that. And uh Matt and Tracy are part of our group, Desi's part of our group, and we kind of all kind of take turns pitching in with food, but sometimes when I look at our grocery bill, I'm like, gosh, like, we're spending a lot on food, but it's it's for a good reason, right? And so God's stretching me in this area of generosity, even with my grocery bill. I'm just being honest with you, like, this is good for me. Like, God is showing me that I need to grow in this. And so I want to challenge you practically, just with that gospel piece first, getting our motives right, and then maybe with a regular giving or the offering piece, like, how is God calling you to be generous with your finances? Because I think that's a really good thing for us to consider this morning. So let's tie this all up. Let's let's kind of put a bow on this this series as we wrap it up. There's a quote that I read as I was reading through some uh commentaries on 1 Timothy, and it just kind of like stood out so well that I that I copied and pasted it here, and I want to read it for you today. It was written by a guy named Warren W. Wersby, a theologian, and he said this as he's talking about this scripture from 1 Timothy chapter 6. In Christ, I want you to really listen to these words. In Christ, we all have things to enjoy, and they're given to us richly, but these material blessings are not only for our enjoyment, they're also for our employment, to be used for the glory of God and the winning of souls. I love that. I love that because it challenges me. It reminds me hey, enjoy what you have, but also use what you have for God's glory, for the winning of souls. So, your next fill-in-the-blank there this morning is this God richly blesses us for our enjoyment and employment. It's both. You have what you have to be a blessing. You're blessed to be a blessing, as some people have said. It's a true phrase. And so, my challenge to me, my challenge to you guys this morning is how are you generously going to use what you have, not just for enjoyment, but also for the employment and for the work of God's kingdom? If you're struggling with that this morning, one last reminder of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9. It'll be on the screen. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. Isn't that like a great scripture just reminding us that it's in Christ that we have the ultimate expression, the ultimate example of generosity? Your last fill in the blank there is this the gospel is our ultimate example of generosity. If you guys are struggling like I do from time to time to know and understand what generosity looks like, you have no better place to look than in than in God and the work of Jesus. And that's why I encourage you, practically, first step, let's remind ourselves of the gospel daily. There's a scripture in 1 John chapter 4 that says, We love because he first loved us. And what I want to say to us today is as we talk on this generosity piece, and as we realize that generosity really helps us, helps cure us from our issues with contentment and ownership, is that potentially we could change that scripture to say, we're generous because he was first generous with us. We're generous because he was first generous with us. That's why I want to be generous, that's why I want each of us to be generous, because it really is a heart issue. God doesn't need our money, he wants your heart. And so this is just us. I I my prayer for myself, my prayer for each of us today is that we just let go in this area and trust God. Trust Him to take care of us. Let me pray for us. And God, thank you for today. Thank you for the truth that's found in your word, all throughout your word. God, there's so many bits of wisdom and insight that we just need. And we struggle in many different ways. God, one of the ways that I personally struggle, and I know people in this room struggle, is just with this piece of generosity. You made it so clear that that's something that you want from us, and yet we struggle with it. And so, God, I just I don't pray just for us to be generous today. I pray that we would know and understand fully the gospel today. Because I believe that as we know that, as we understand the gospel, how you came and rescued us, this generosity piece is naturally going to happen in my life. It's naturally gonna happen in the lives of each of these people here today. And so, God, we release ourselves again to you and say, God, we trust you. Help us to pry our hands open and to be the people you've called us to be as we look at the gospel, as we look at your amazing generosity and love that you that the love that you lavished on us through Christ. God, just pray that we wouldn't leave here discouraged today, but we'd be encouraged by the gospel. We'd be filled with your spirit, Jesus. We need you, we need your help in this area. I need your help in this area. So please do your work. Thank you. Amen.