SPEAKER_00: And church, how are we doing this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to see all of you.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to have everybody online.
SPEAKER_00: Great to have all of our campuses with us.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to get to 2 Corinthians chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: And if I've not met you, my name is Sean.
SPEAKER_00: I'm lead pastor here at Central.
SPEAKER_00: And before we jump into the message, I want to just give everybody, all of our campuses, one heads up.
SPEAKER_00: Like one heads up that there is something happening a month that is really important.
SPEAKER_00: So Easter Sunday, Easter weekend is a month from this weekend.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so for you, that's like, okay, great, great.
SPEAKER_00: It's a month away.
SPEAKER_00: For us, that's our Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_00: Like that, that is a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Like the reason it's our Super Bowl is because more people are willing to come to church on Easter weekend than any other weekend of the year.
SPEAKER_00: And so that means more people are willing to say yes to your invite that weekend than any other weekend.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of the goals that we have this year is just really helping our people, helping you be a hero to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: Like helping every single person at Central reach one with the gospel and the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So that means that everyone needs to invite one.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to do a series on hope.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to start two weeks before Easter.
SPEAKER_00: It'll culminate on Easter.
SPEAKER_00: The first two weeks will kind of be a little bit more for us and just about how Jesus provides hope.
SPEAKER_00: And then on Easter weekend, it's going to be for every single person who comes.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to give the message of how Jesus brings beauty out of the mess.
SPEAKER_00: So I just gave you the message right there.
SPEAKER_00: Like Friday, it looked like a big mess, right?
SPEAKER_00: Sunday, it was like, wow, God can do that.
SPEAKER_00: And if he can do that, think about the hope that he can bring into your friends, your family, your coworkers' lives.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a whole lot of people right now that are looking at our world saying, I need some hope.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality is, is we look around our world right now and we do need some hope.
SPEAKER_00: We're praying for a lot of things out there, just all kinds of stuff going on.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of people in their personal lives that are going, I need hope.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need answers to everything else out there.
SPEAKER_00: I just need some hope.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus brings.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you to be thinking about the names of the people that you know that God might be putting on your heart to invite.
SPEAKER_00: And then the best and easiest invite is just to say, Hey, my church is talking about hope.
SPEAKER_00: Would you come sit with me on Easter Sunday?
SPEAKER_00: Would you want to come and hang out?
SPEAKER_00: So be thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to give you some resources and some help to make those invites easy for you.
SPEAKER_00: But just remember, people say yes to Easter weekend.
SPEAKER_00: So let's get them here.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: All right, 2 Corinthians chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: Before we get there, I am a fan of comedians.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you love comedy?
SPEAKER_00: I think we all do, and probably have our favorite comedians.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorites is Nate Bargetsi.
SPEAKER_00: Love that dude.
SPEAKER_00: He's super hilarious.
SPEAKER_00: And he's so smart with his humor.
SPEAKER_00: Like he does this thing that most comedians do, but he's got this thing that I would just call the time release joke.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: It's the joke that you say, and there's some people that just get it.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's quick, they laugh.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's other people, it's like the 15 seconds later, right?
SPEAKER_00: They kind of laugh.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's a person, the few people that it's like tomorrow at lunch, they laughed, you know, when they were in the room just to be with everybody else, and then tomorrow at lunch are like, oh, and they get it later, right?
SPEAKER_00: I have to admit that I'm the 15 second later guy.
SPEAKER_00: I just in them.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that is, but I don't know if my mind's just racing all the time.
SPEAKER_00: But something happens, and I just I always I don't always get it in the moment, but I'll get it a little bit later.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just with comedy and with jokes, it happens in all kinds of places in my life.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, my family, when my kids were much younger, my wife and I were out visiting my parents.
SPEAKER_00: They lived at the time in Grants Pass, Oregon.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a river there that uh they do these riverboat tours on the Rogue River.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful setting, beautiful river, and it has these wide channels, big areas that are really wide.
SPEAKER_00: And they take these river boats that are like jet boats, but they're big.
SPEAKER_00: Like they take 25 to 30 people on these boats.
SPEAKER_00: And so there'll be like five rows of people, you know, six rows, six people across, and they're flat bottom boats with like two Corvette engines in them.
SPEAKER_00: And so they just rear up and down and they'll do this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So if you've been rafting, you kind of get this.
SPEAKER_00: They put a lot of rafts out there, everybody's water fighting and doing all that.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what they do in these boats.
SPEAKER_00: But then they do this thing where they will roar down the river, they will turn the wheel, and that boat will just spin like a teacup across the top of the water.
SPEAKER_00: And so you just imagine it's a super fun, you know, time that you do for a couple hours.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting to the end of the tour, and they have the guy, you know, that's that's driving.
SPEAKER_00: Then they have the guy who's up there with his microphone, he's doing the, you know, telling all the history and all the stuff and making jokes.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, Hey guys, we're around the corner, you know, we'll be done and we're gonna pull into the dock.
SPEAKER_00: But as we go around the corner, there's this house that you'll see up on the right-hand side.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting right here on the right hand side next to the water, and and they're like, they're these two ladies, man, they're just they are like clockwork, they're there every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we come around the corner and we're finishing up, they're just big fans of what we do and super sweet.
SPEAKER_00: And and so, you know, I'm just kind of imagining these two like old ladies, you know, just sitting there and you know, sunbathing, just kind of hanging out, just waving.
SPEAKER_00: And and so they said, when you come around the corner, just make sure they're gonna be waving at you.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you guys wave back.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, cool, sounds good.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're coming around the corner, and the guy says, Okay, guys, here they come.
SPEAKER_00: They're right here on the right-hand side.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting right here, and I look up and I see these two ladies, and I and so I just start waving.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, hey, how's it going?
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's making friends.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden I realize I hear this laughter, and I'm I realize that everybody on the boat is cracking up laughing.
SPEAKER_00: They're laughing hard.
SPEAKER_00: And I turn around and I realize they're laughing hard at me.
SPEAKER_00: Like everybody's looking at me, and I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: And I look at my wife and realize we're the only two not laughing.
SPEAKER_00: And I have this look of like confusion, and she has this look of disgust, like, oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, you know that look, right?
SPEAKER_00: And and I'm like, what is going on?
SPEAKER_00: And I and so I turn back around and I look and I realize that I've just been waving at two mannequins in swimsuits on the side of the field, and I'm the I'm like, I'm waving like I got two new friends.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody else gets it except for me, and everybody else has a whole lot of fun at my expense because when you miss the joke, you miss the laughter, right?
SPEAKER_00: You miss the joy, and that's the way it is in a lot of things in life.
SPEAKER_00: When you miss out on something, when you are slow on the uptake, what happens is you miss out on the reward.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul is writing to a church in Corinth that he has started.
SPEAKER_00: He had left a group of leaders that were in charge there, and and Paul had gone away.
SPEAKER_00: And what you see in the New Testament is all the books that Paul wrote were letters to either churches like the church in Corinth, the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians, written to the Corinthian people, or like Ephesus, the church in Ephesus, the Ephesians, Paul writes these letters to say, hey, here's how you do church, here's how you do life, here's how you do relationships, here's how you do all kinds of things, like sexuality and worship and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And so he teaches these churches.
SPEAKER_00: And when he writes to the Corinthian people, he writes two letters.
SPEAKER_00: And as you read these letters, you just begin to realize, man, the people in Corinth were slow on the uptake.
SPEAKER_00: Like for them, it wasn't like 15 seconds later, it was like two years later.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they just were struggling, and you see disunity in the church, and Paul's writing about worship, and he's writing about um even things where they were, they were going taking each other to court.
SPEAKER_00: He's right having to write about sexuality and some of the things that were going on and in the church, and just saying, guys, you need to grow up.
SPEAKER_00: Like you need to grow up.
SPEAKER_00: And in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and 9, he writes about an issue that the church in Corinth is slow on the uptake.
SPEAKER_00: They need to grow up in, and it's the issue of generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes about the issue of being generous with their resources because in Jerusalem there's a famine.
SPEAKER_00: If you think about the Jerusalem church, everything started in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was the leader of the Jerusalem church, it had grown up, then there was persecution, and it says the people were scattered, and they went out and went to surrounding areas.
SPEAKER_00: And then what Paul and Barnabas did is the Jerusalem church commissioned them as leaders to be missionaries and church planters to go to the surrounding areas, cities, even countries to plant churches.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul did.
SPEAKER_00: And so what's happening is Paul's going back to the churches that the Jerusalem church has funded.
SPEAKER_00: Like they have helped plant these churches, they've given the resources to this, and now he's saying, guys, Jerusalem is undergoing a famine.
SPEAKER_00: Corinth, you you guys are people of means.
SPEAKER_00: I've asked you to help.
SPEAKER_00: You've been helped by them, but you're not helping.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Let's talk.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul does not shame them.
SPEAKER_00: Paul just simply just says, Hey, let me talk to you about some principles about this idea of generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Second Corinthians chapter 9, starting verse 6, let's let's read what he writes to the church.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
SPEAKER_00: Each one of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_00: And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work, as it is written.
SPEAKER_00: They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Now he, meaning God, who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will also supply and increase your store of seed so that and it enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.
SPEAKER_00: And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, can I just be transparent for a minute?
SPEAKER_00: Paul's writing on this, you know, issue of generosity.
SPEAKER_00: He writes to the church in Corinth and he says, You guys are a little slow on the uptake.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't know what it was, but I would say that this issue was one of the last issues for me spiritually to capture to catch on to, to to at least just understand.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be very honest, I was slow on the uptake on it.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in the church, I grew up in a pastor's family, and for some reason, man, I I had learned, I had learned about prayer and the importance of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I had learned about scripture and the authority of scripture and and the the importance of us being into scripture and understanding it and living by it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I learned about the importance of serving, but for some reason, whatever it was, I just did not catch the idea of understanding how important generosity is in our spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: And when I caught it, Jen and I were in our late 20s.
SPEAKER_00: And so you think about that time.
SPEAKER_00: We're in our late 20s, we're starting a family, we've got a young family, we've got small salaries, we've we've got big bills in our minds.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you come to this issue of generosity, we were like, this doesn't feel easy.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, for me, I was like, this does not feel natural.
SPEAKER_00: Like it feels risky.
SPEAKER_00: It feels risky because we've got bills and we've got issues, and now understood that, understood and begin to understand the teaching about it, but there was this issue where it's like, this doesn't feel easy.
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's probably a lot of us.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably some of you sitting here, one of our campuses or right here or online, where you're you're just listening, so you're like, yeah, that issue.
SPEAKER_00: Get uncomfortable talking about it.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter if you're doing well financially or not doing well financially, it can be an uncomfortable conversation because money, resources, hit us in the area of our control, and it becomes difficult in our lives, and that and that's the reason, like the reason that Jesus talked about and scripture talks so much about this issue of resources and money.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you look at, did you know that in the Bible there are a thousand verses?
SPEAKER_00: Not about money, but a thousand verses combined about prayer and faith.
SPEAKER_00: That seems like a lot of verses.
SPEAKER_00: When you take money, possessions, and and wealth, 2,350 verses approximately in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: If you take all of Jesus' stories, meaning his parables that he taught, 40% were about wealth and the spiritual dangers of wealth, what it can do with us with greed and that.
SPEAKER_00: He told stories.
SPEAKER_00: 40% of his parables were about that.
SPEAKER_00: And why?
SPEAKER_00: Why did Jesus have to teach so much about it?
SPEAKER_00: Because we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the idea of stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: And step back for just one moment to the beginning of January.
SPEAKER_00: Think about everything we have talked about so far this year has been about stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: And we've not talked about finances until this week and last week.
SPEAKER_00: Went through a book of Nehemiah and we talked about stewardship of our mind, our bodies, and our souls.
SPEAKER_00: We did a 52-day challenge.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you get in your t-shirt today.
SPEAKER_00: Way to go.
SPEAKER_00: Good job.
SPEAKER_00: High five.
SPEAKER_00: That's the idea of stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: Stewardship is what we do with what God has given us.
SPEAKER_00: And you think about that 52-day challenge.
SPEAKER_00: God gave us a body, a mind, and a soul.
SPEAKER_00: And the decisions we make, we are to be stewards of that to give God glory.
SPEAKER_00: See, so stewardship is what you do with what God has given you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not just your body, that's not just your mind, that's not just your soul, that is everything God has given you.
SPEAKER_00: And most of us, the reason we struggle with this issue of generosity is because we have a fundamental misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_00: Like we think it's all mine.
SPEAKER_00: We have this feeling of like I worked for it, I earned it, and you have.
SPEAKER_00: You've worked hard for it.
SPEAKER_00: And you have earned it.
SPEAKER_00: But understand, Psalm 24, verse 1 says, The earth is the Lord's and what?
SPEAKER_00: Everything in it, the whole world and everyone in it.
SPEAKER_00: You see, you see, when we begin to understand who our creator is, what he has done for us, what he has given us, every good and perfect gift comes from above, the book of James says.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we have, it's not ours, it's his.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means, he is the owner.
SPEAKER_00: We are not the owners.
SPEAKER_00: That means we are simply stewards and managers that we are to manage God's resources on whose behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Not ours, but his.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the interesting thing: we find more blessing, we find more joy, we find more peace, we find more faith when we manage it on his behalf instead of ours.
SPEAKER_00: You see, with that understanding, let's go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 9, the start of verse 6, and let's just see a few things that Paul writes to the Corinthian church to teach him about this idea of stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: When you get to verse 6, here's what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever sows generously will also reap what?
SPEAKER_00: Generously.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's just like a fundamental law of nature, right?
SPEAKER_00: You reap what you sow.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul's teaching here.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, you reap what you sow.
SPEAKER_00: God wrote that law into creation.
SPEAKER_00: Farmers understand this.
SPEAKER_00: They cast seed, they fertilize seed, they water the seed, right?
SPEAKER_00: You reap what you sow.
SPEAKER_00: But the interesting thing is, is investors understand this too.
SPEAKER_00: You invest money, right?
SPEAKER_00: You invest money, that money has interests.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, then there's a return on that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the principle God created it's not only that you reap what you sow, you reap what you sow, but you reap more than you sow, and you reap later than you sow.
SPEAKER_00: And there's truth to that.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like, understand, there is truth to that, and it's not always financial.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of pastors get up there and say, give to God, and he's gonna write a check back to you.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what scripture says.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it does say Paul says that he will provide abundantly for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, abundantly for you, not so that you can just raise your standard of living, but so that you can increase your standard of giving and generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul also says for people who are saying, What does God want me to just give all my money?
SPEAKER_00: No, God does not say that.
SPEAKER_00: It says in Timothy, actually, Paul writes to Timothy and he says, God gives you everything for your enjoyment.
SPEAKER_00: Go to Disneyland with your kids, have fun, but also be generous.
SPEAKER_00: Also be generous because we're managing God's resources, invest in your family, give your family experiences, do those things.
SPEAKER_00: But also be generous for the sake of the kingdom and putting your trust in the one who has given to you.
SPEAKER_00: See, for my wife and I, I'm telling you, she could stand up here with me and we could say that principle is true.
SPEAKER_00: You reap what you sow, but guys, we have seen when we have sowed more trust, we have reaped more peace and faith and encouragement than we actually ever invested.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can't outgive God.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's just truth to that.
SPEAKER_00: You reap what you sow, you reap more than you sow, but you reap after you sow.
SPEAKER_00: There is a principle that if you're going to be a giver, God will give back to us, he will bless us with peace and joy and faith and miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, You reap what you sow.
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes on and he says this he says in verse 7, he said, Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because motive matters, right?
SPEAKER_00: Motive matters.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's trying to write and say, God looks at the heart.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Why does it matter?
SPEAKER_00: God looks at the heart, not the amount.
SPEAKER_00: See, here's the reality: God's God's not looking, he's not looking for sad givers, he's not looking for mad givers and that.
SPEAKER_00: He he is looking for givers that have a heart that is committed to him.
SPEAKER_00: He's not looking at the amount, he's looking at the heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus sat in the temple, and the one time you ever see him like acknowledging and really looking at people's giving was when there was a widow that walked into the temple and walked up to the offering buckets there, and she put in two small coins.
SPEAKER_00: And there were people, Jesus acknowledged and said, Look at all these leaders, look at all these people, look at all these business leaders, look at all these religious leaders who've walked in and they've taken their bags of coins and been like, She walks in like Jesus, like, guys, get over here.
SPEAKER_00: You see that?
SPEAKER_00: That is the biggest gift that was given all day because God doesn't look at the zeros, he looks at the heart.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't care about the amount.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody could come in and they could give what God's looking for is sacrifice and surrender.
SPEAKER_00: And for somebody, surrender might be 20 bucks.
SPEAKER_00: Surrender and sacrifice might be 20 bucks, and that might be more than the$20,000 that somebody gives over here.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is looking at is saying, it's about the amount of the heart, the sacrifice of the heart that's actually given, which should really encourage some of us.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's some of us that think I can't be generous until I have more.
SPEAKER_00: Because this little amount doesn't seem like generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Well, who cares what anybody else thinks?
SPEAKER_00: Man, to your God, he's saying, Man, you just rack up.
SPEAKER_00: You just remember last week it says, man, our giving here, our generosity here, for the kingdom's sake, for the kingdom's sake, gets applied to our eternal reward.
SPEAKER_00: God's like, man, rack it up there.
SPEAKER_00: Because that person is sacrificing for the sake of my kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's true heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's true generosity.
SPEAKER_00: You see, for some it could be$20, for some it could be$200, for some it could be$2,000 or$20,000 or$200,000 or two.
SPEAKER_00: What doesn't matter to God, it's all the same to God.
SPEAKER_00: What doesn't matter to God is the amount.
SPEAKER_00: What matters is the size of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Paul goes on and he writes in verse 7, and you see in verse 7, it he completes that portion and he says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a what?
SPEAKER_00: Cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_00: For God loves a cheerful giver.
SPEAKER_00: Now, interesting, did you know that that word cheerful in the Greek language is actually our word hilarious in the English language?
SPEAKER_00: So apparently, like Paul liked comedians too, right?
SPEAKER_00: But it's that it's that idea, it's it's that idea of man, generosity, like generosity creates joy in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's writing, he's saying greater generosity equals greater joy.
SPEAKER_00: I was at a church in Phoenix, one of the oldest churches in Phoenix.
SPEAKER_00: It's Lincoln Heights Christian Church.
SPEAKER_00: Chris Rusen is the pastor there.
SPEAKER_00: He's in my pastor's group that I've talked about before, good friend.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he got up before he had me be a guest speaker.
SPEAKER_00: He introduced me.
SPEAKER_00: Before he introduced me, they did communion, and then did the offering time.
SPEAKER_00: Comes the offering, and and Chris is like, he should have like an announcing voice for the sons.
SPEAKER_00: Like, be the announcement.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, his voice is just awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he gets up there and he looks at the church, looks out at everybody, and he's like, All right, church, you know what time it is?
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden I was like, what is going on?
SPEAKER_00: Because everybody starts like cheering and just just like I was like, what is happening?
SPEAKER_00: And I hear somebody is like yell back, it's time to give.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I have never heard a church do that in my life before.
SPEAKER_00: Chris was teaching that group of people that man, giving is about joy.
SPEAKER_00: It's about having joy and being involved in what God's doing, and that joy produces something in us.
SPEAKER_00: And what's really interesting is science is now catching up.
SPEAKER_00: With what scripture's been saying for thousands of years.
SPEAKER_00: Like, did you know that Columbia University did a study?
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of universities that have done studies on this.
SPEAKER_00: And they said people who are generous, that are involved in generous activities and generous giving, they have lower blood pressure, they have better heart health, their emotional health is better, depression is lower.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you just go down, life expectancy is longer, they're happier.
SPEAKER_00: Like you just go down, there's a list like this long of all the physical and mental aspects and benefits of giving.
SPEAKER_00: Which means that generosity is not just good for your heart, it's good for your body and your mind too.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's something in this idea of generosity.
SPEAKER_00: Todd Harper, he's the uh he is the co-founder of generous giving.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've never met an unhappy, generous person.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, if you think about that, I've met a lot of anxious people, I've met a lot of angry people, I've met a lot of selfish people, and I've met a lot of people in those categories that are really miserable.
SPEAKER_00: I've never met a person who is truly generous and miserable at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: Because what generosity does, generosity doesn't just change the world around us.
SPEAKER_00: Generosity changes the heart inside us.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, that's a whole point.
SPEAKER_00: Like what Paul is teaching this church, he's saying, guys, you're a little bit slow on the uptake on this one.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, let's grow up in this, and you're missing out.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Because you're slow right here on this one, you're missing out, and what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, This generosity thing, what it does is it transforms your heart to be more like Jesus' heart.
SPEAKER_00: He says, That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: Because this whole Christianity thing, it's not something we do, it's someone we reflect.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8, verses 31 and 32, it talks about just like the one of the biggest characteristics of God.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to it.
SPEAKER_00: It says in verse 31 and 32, what then shall we say in response to these things?
SPEAKER_00: If God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_00: He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
SPEAKER_00: How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
SPEAKER_00: John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, generosity is not just an action, it's an identity.
SPEAKER_00: It is an identity that when we give, we are most like the God that we serve.
SPEAKER_00: And if you think about what has been given to you, just put all put the financial stuff aside.
SPEAKER_00: You think about the forgiveness, the grace, the mercy, you think about the opportunity that we give our lives to Christ and place our faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He gives us not just our 50, 60, 70, 80 years here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will give you eternity with me.
SPEAKER_00: And eternity without all the junk in this life.
SPEAKER_00: Like that is the generosity of our God.
SPEAKER_00: And God calls us to be generous.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the one thing about generosity is you don't wake up tomorrow and all of a sudden become a radically generous person.
SPEAKER_00: You realize that?
SPEAKER_00: I realize my wife and I, this has been a journey for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a journey, and I just freely admit, for me, it started just a little bit late.
SPEAKER_00: But man, it's been a fun journey of just talking about and having conversations and working through and seeing God allow us.
SPEAKER_00: If I were to look back when I was, you know, 28, 29 years old and see what we gave then, and then now see what God's been able to bless us and what we're able to give now.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like, wow, I never dreamed of that.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, please don't hear me saying, hey, I'm some radical.
SPEAKER_00: This is a journey we're continually growing in.
SPEAKER_00: And it and so if it's a journey of steps, the question is not, am I a generous person?
SPEAKER_00: The question is, what's my next step?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you a visual.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you a visual to help us understand these steps of generosity.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like Paul's just kind of trying to give this to this church in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: If you were to think of this ladder right here, this is your life.
SPEAKER_00: This is your life, not eternity, like we talked about last week.
SPEAKER_00: This is your 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years here.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever God grants you with, this is your life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's everything within your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's your time, it's your talents, it's your resources, it's the stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: You are in charge of the stewardship of this life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you think about this life, each and every one of us, we have different capacities.
SPEAKER_00: We have different things that we have received.
SPEAKER_00: Like you live in different houses, you have different cars, you have you get what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: We have different amounts of resources.
SPEAKER_00: But when we think of our life, here's what we think.
SPEAKER_00: For all of us, we're like, this is my life.
SPEAKER_00: And with our life, we think that the place that we should be in our life is on top of this.
SPEAKER_00: Like it's me first.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is my stuff, it's my resources.
SPEAKER_00: I work for it, I earned it, it's mine.
SPEAKER_00: So I get to say, what goes?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: What is the most unstable place on this ladder?
SPEAKER_00: It's the top.
SPEAKER_00: And the most dangerous thing that money will do to us is to say to us that this right here, this is where you're supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: I'm making some of you really nervous right now.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the reality.
SPEAKER_00: We've got a value around this place.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus first, because this whole life is about stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: It's about putting Jesus at the top.
SPEAKER_00: Because for us, what happens to our hearts is when we become stewards of God's resources and we put Jesus at the top and we begin to manage everything in our life according to how he would manage that in our life.
SPEAKER_00: What this is, the stewardship journey, is not a journey up the ladder, it's a journey down the ladder.
SPEAKER_00: It's a journey down the ladder.
SPEAKER_00: And the further we go down the ladder, the more steps we take in this road of generosity or just in stewardship of our life, the more our heart stabilizes and we become less me first, and we become more Jesus first, which is a whole lot better way to live with so much more joy, peace, faith, and possibility of miracles.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you look at this life that we've got, this whole picture is what happens is when a person, when a person begins that journey, and Paul's saying to the church in Corinth, he's saying, Hey, jump in.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's a need, and you need to be able to jump in.
SPEAKER_00: And so that first step is to give.
SPEAKER_00: It's simply to give.
SPEAKER_00: And what that first step is, is to be a first-time giver.
SPEAKER_00: You think about for a lot of people, if you just look nationally across the nation, it's close to 40% of people who go to churches have never given to their church ever.
SPEAKER_00: And those are people, you think about people who come here, if it's 40%, you those are people who love the church, love God, believe in God, but kind of like me, we're slow on the uptake.
SPEAKER_00: Just not quite getting it.
SPEAKER_00: But somewhere, they heard a message like this, or they had a conversation with a person, or they read a podcast, or listened to a podcast, read a scripture, whatever it is, and realized God's a giver.
SPEAKER_00: Like God's a giver, and he's given his first and he's given his best.
SPEAKER_00: And and he asked, Jesus even says, give and it will be given to you.
SPEAKER_00: He asked us to give in response our faith and our trust to God.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happens is Paul says each one should decide in their own heart what they should give.
SPEAKER_00: They decide.
SPEAKER_00: And for the first time, they go from being a consumer to being a contributor.
SPEAKER_00: And it may feel awkward and they may not feel like that gift is very big or whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_00: And and but spiritually speaking, it's huge because it is the first step away from being me first to becoming Jesus first in the area of our finances.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the interesting thing though, is when you think about generosity, if it's forming our heart to be like God's heart, it can't be a one-time event.
SPEAKER_00: It's got to be something that is consistent, that something that begins to shape habits in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And so that next step is to go from being a new giver, a first-time giver, to being a consistent giver.
SPEAKER_00: Consistent givers realize that, man, their generosity is not random, it's rhythmic.
SPEAKER_00: Like when income comes in, generosity should go out.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens in our house.
SPEAKER_00: I get paid once a month.
SPEAKER_00: My wife gets paid once a month.
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
SPEAKER_00: Income comes in, generosity goes out.
SPEAKER_00: And when does it go out?
SPEAKER_00: It goes out first.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you wait till last, man, life just has a way of just kind of sucking it up.
SPEAKER_00: And what we miss out on is what we miss out on is the miracles are going, man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little tight this month, and then all of a sudden God just provides, and you're like Paul says, and and God is able to give abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: Consistent givers believe that.
SPEAKER_00: They believe that God will give abundantly, and so they don't wait till they have more, they give and they create consistency.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a one-time event, it's a habit.
SPEAKER_00: And what is habits, what do habits do?
SPEAKER_00: They shape hearts.
SPEAKER_00: They shape our hearts to be more like God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the interesting thing about consistent giving is it doesn't always translate into sacrificial giving.
SPEAKER_00: Like even just if you look at here at Central, here's here's what a statistic for you is is there is um 40%, 44% of our people here at Central give a thousand dollars or less in a year.
SPEAKER_00: Now, for some of you, that might that's that's a big sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Now for others, knowing what they make and looking, it's not exactly sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And so that next step is not just consistency, that next step is intentionality.
SPEAKER_00: We become an intentional giver.
SPEAKER_00: And what intentional givers is that do is they start asking the question, hey, what portion of my income, like what percentage of my income would translate into my heart being surrendered to God?
SPEAKER_00: They begin to have that conversation.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, what do you see?
SPEAKER_00: You see a tithe.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, what it teaches about it doesn't teach tithe, it teaches sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus and Paul and others in the New Testament, the New Testament writers talk about this idea of sacrificing and surrendering our heart to God.
SPEAKER_00: And so what intentional givers do is they don't just set a schedule, they set an amount.
SPEAKER_00: They begin to look at what God's given them and they say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Man, investing in the kingdom, and believe me, we can invest in all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: And man, do that.
SPEAKER_00: Invest in your alma mater, give the humane society, give your kids' sports teams, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But you want to give to things that last, you give to eternal things and kingdom things.
SPEAKER_00: People have been asking, well, what if I give to this and then?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, understand when it when what Paul is talking about and what Jesus is talking about is giving to kingdom things.
SPEAKER_00: And so for us, our family, man, we give to the church first.
SPEAKER_00: We give to the church, we tithe to the church.
SPEAKER_00: And then if there's anything else that goes out, there's anything else that goes out to other things and other organizations, kids and kids' sports teams and whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But for us, it's investing in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Intentional givers, they look at what is sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's one more step on the ladder, and that's being a catalytic giver.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the interesting thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's when I say, stick with me on this, because when I say a catalytic giver, there's some of you that you you've seen churches and you've seen how churches have been, and you just kind of step back and say, Oh, here's where he's talking to the wealthy people.
SPEAKER_00: Because that they they actually matter more.
SPEAKER_00: And churches treat them like they're more spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: If you go back, what did Paul say?
SPEAKER_00: It's not about the zeros, it's about the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It is.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a reality, and you see it in scripture, there's a reality that some givers can be catalytic.
SPEAKER_00: And catalytic is not about being more spiritual, it's not even about sacrificing more, because for them, that catalytic large gift that pushes ministry forward and vision forward and opens doors for things may be less of a sacrifice than the person who gave$2,000 this year.
SPEAKER_00: They're just scraping it to get by, but they were sacrificial.
SPEAKER_00: God looks at that and says, Well, that's more than that.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is some people have the ability to create wealth.
SPEAKER_00: God's given them a gift to create wealth.
SPEAKER_00: And understand in scripture, scripture treats that the same way as it would treat teaching or mercy or hospitality or any of those gifts.
SPEAKER_00: You look at it in the New Testament and you see that Barnabas was one of those people.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 5, what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: He had a piece of property, sold it, he gave a legacy gift to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Lydia, wealthy businesswoman in Acts chapter 16, she supported Paul and his companions.
SPEAKER_00: And then what she did is she gave gifts to be able to help start the Philippian church, the church in Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you could go on down.
SPEAKER_00: And there's some of you, honestly, God has gifted you with that ability.
SPEAKER_00: And the encouragement is not gifted you with that ability to gain more stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Again, enjoy your family, invest in your business, do all that, but don't do it at the detriment of generosity toward God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If God has gifted you with the ability to push vision forward and open doors for his kingdom, do it.
SPEAKER_00: That may be what God has called you to.
SPEAKER_00: And you may be so busy, you may be like, I don't, I can't volunteer in the kids' ministry, and I can't, but you can give.
SPEAKER_00: You can give and you can help support what that person who's leading those mission trips and who's leading in our junior high ministry or our high school or our young adults or whatever it is, you may be able to push for a vision that nobody else can.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: what's interesting is every single one of us can stand on this step.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes in chapter eight.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter nine, he writes all the things we taught.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter eight, he writes to the church in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Guys, I'm coming.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming to gather that gift for the church in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And he's so gentle with them.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I know you haven't done anything yet, but make sure you do.
SPEAKER_00: So when I get there, it's not confusing.
SPEAKER_00: And then he gives them an example.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Because I just came from the Macedonian church.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, the Macedonian church was going through extreme poverty.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of the things that were going on there and won't get into the story, but just going through so much poverty and they had nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And he says their extreme poverty welled up into rich generosity, catalytic generosity.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul was saying is their gifts were so small to us.
SPEAKER_00: They're massive to God.
SPEAKER_00: But when this person took their gift and that person took, and everybody across the whole church and the whole church took all of their gifts together, it didn't matter what the physical amount was, the amount that came together was a catalytic gift together.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Paul's writing and saying is every single one of us, man, some of us need to take the step to be a first-time giver.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us to be become consistent in our giving.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us, that next step is intentionality, but for all of us, it's together we can become catalytic for this valley.
SPEAKER_00: And I said this last week.
SPEAKER_00: I said that I believe that the amount of vision that God's gonna be able to push forward here through us in this valley of reaching people, and we live in a desert, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Be able to bring grace to this valley to people of all ages, that is just like an oasis where we introduce people to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: See, marriage is fixed, see, see families all, but see, people give their lives to Christ and set their eternity with Him is going to be directly correlated to the generosity that we have, not just with our time, not just with our talents, but with our resources.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, what is the next step?
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I fully just admit that when I was early on, man, it was it was I was a little slow in the uptake.
SPEAKER_00: I was a dude in the boat going.
SPEAKER_00: And man, what a ride it has been to just be a part of and to see together with so many other people, see things done for the kingdom, to have the joy of that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you, what is your next step?
SPEAKER_00: Because we are in this boat together.
SPEAKER_00: We're in this boat together.
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, we need to take a step and stop waving and just take a step and let's do this and together, together see what God can do.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: There's some ways to give right here.
SPEAKER_00: You can give online, you can give at our app.
SPEAKER_00: You can also give when you leave uh uh at the boxes in the back.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you to be thinking, what is my next step?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we just come before you right now, and I want to thank you for every single person at our campuses.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I want to thank you for everyone online.
SPEAKER_00: I want to thank you for all the people who just give so much time and energy to this place for the sake of your mission.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I do want to just pray that you would just call up, call all of us up into a greater, just a greater step in generosity that helps our heart become more like your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, for every single person who takes that step, Father, I pray that you would just help them to reap what they sow, reap more than they sow, and reap after they sow.
SPEAKER_00: That God, there would just be an abundant blessing to your kingdom because of each and every one of us giving together, that it would be catalytic in this valley.
SPEAKER_00: And then I pray, Father, that you would just give abundantly to each person more faith, more joy, more peace, and more understanding.
SPEAKER_00: God, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your grace.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.