Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest
questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search
and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead
pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth
for the life we're searching for. Well, we're glad to be with you today. Thank you so much
for being in our service today. We're talking about the fourth practice that changes everything
in a person's life. And I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter
two today. We're going to talk about generous giving. You know, at some point when you began
to talk about generosity or generous giving, it becomes part of the conversation to say,
this is what's changed my life or it's changed someone else's life or some situation that
we're aware of. Generous giving does that. In Acts chapter two is the opening of the
New Testament church, opening days. They were practicing some amazing kinds of habits that
were allowing them to grow in faith and knowledge of Christ. And part of that was generosity
woven throughout the pages of the book of Acts. You have generosity. Let's stand together
for just a few moments as we read this passage, Acts chapter two, beginning in verse 47. This
is after Pentecost, after Peter preached this great message at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit
has fallen on all these individuals. Many have come to faith in Christ. In fact, verse
41 says about 3000 souls were added on that day of Pentecost. So this is kind of a, a
pinnacle of the opening chapter of the New Testament church. And then it begins to talk
about what they began to do immediately on the other side of this great moment of Pentecost.
It says in verse 42, they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching
and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a
sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all
those who had believed were together and had all things in common. And they began selling
their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day
by day continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they
were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God, having
favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who
were being saved. I just love this text. I love reading about the New Testament church
and I love reading about the zeal and the passion and enthusiasm that are coming out
of these opening moments. And I so pray that we can grasp how the spirit was moving then
and how he wants to move now. Father in Jesus name, show us by the power of your Holy Spirit,
all we need to know about this text and our lives and how they intersect. So that allow
us to be like those people, generous followers of Jesus Christ. We ask this in Jesus name
and everybody said amen. Please be seated if you would. Well, generosity is a pretty
big deal. And I want to define it as we walk through this because you see this all through
the church. And by the way, as I start this message, I want you to know that I believe
that we are in a very, very generous church. You need to know today I'm not preaching this
message out of a sense of need. We don't have any particular need right now that I could
say, oh, we need you to be generous about this or about that. That's not why this message
has happened today. And we're not saying this because we think there's some failure in giving
in some part in our church. If anything, we look back and say, God, what an incredible
blessing the generosity of this church has been. He's done so many things and we'll talk
about that in just a few moments. And we'll take some time just to thank God for how he's
provided. And in the middle of this message, I'm also going to give you a very important
announcement that has a great deal to do with the generosity of God towards his people.
And so you want to make note of what I say in just a few moments. I don't think you're
going to be able to miss it, but nonetheless, I want to warn you. So as we walk through
this series that we're in, we've named four things that are key practices that change
everything in your life. We began four weeks ago with the principle of corporate worship.
Worshipping God individually and worshiping God corporately was the mainstay of the New
Testament church. It's why they gathered together to encourage one another and to edify and
glorify God. It's a reset of everything that we do in the course of a week where we are
reminded on the first day of the week that the priority of our lives is to follow Jesus
Christ who is worthy of all praise and all glory and all honor. And when we gather, I
hope that you open up your heart and are reminded that we live for him. Everything is about
him, corporate worship. Secondly, we looked the second week about connecting with other
people, the importance of what fellowship with one another really is, how we sharpen
one another. Iron sharpens iron, we said. And we see how the New Testament church was
filled with believers that were challenging one another and encouraging one another and
praying for one another in a huge, huge way. And in a world that doesn't really know where
it fits, the church of Jesus Christ is where every believer fits. If you ever wonder where
are your people and you're a believer in Christ, the church is your people and that's who you
need to turn to and the church needs to be a great advocate for your spiritual walk.
So that's the second habit. The third habit is serving. Those who follow Christ and all
he did know that his life was about not being served but to serve and to give himself as
a ransom for many and he led his disciples to serve. Servanthood is so incredibly important
and now this fourth practice, this fourth habit that changes everything is giving. I
can't imagine my life without these four things being a constant, a constant practice in my
life in various forms. Worshipping him, connecting with other people, being able to serve somewhere
in the body of Christ for his glory and giving faithfully and even generously as he leads.
All those things are key pieces of my spiritual growth and they'll be key pieces of your spiritual
growth as well. Let me define generosity as we walk through this message. Generosity is
a quality of being kind and selfless and sharing money or valuables with others. It's often
attributed to God and his loving, sharing, kind nature. John 3.16, one of the most famous
verses in all the Bible talks about how giving God is. For God so loved the world that he
did what? He gave his only begotten son that whoever believes on him should not perish
but have everlasting life. God sets the bar high. He gives generously. He's a giving God.
And when we talk about generosity, we need to talk about reflecting the character of
God in our financial practices and in our giving and in our generosity. So the New Testament
church, this text here, talks about the kickoff, the opening quarter, if you will, of the New
Testament church and the regular practices that they settled into. You can see them in
verse 32. When you look at verse 42, you'll see the corporate worship, that is they gather
together. You saw them connecting with each other. There was community taking place. The
Bible talks about how they were encouraging one another and praying for one another. All
those things that I talked about a moment ago, those were found in verse 42 and also
generosity. Generosity is not an afterthought. It's something that comes out of the health
that was happening in the New Testament church. So let's see three things about generosity
in this text today. First of all, generosity is built upon spiritual health. Spiritually
healthy people learn to practice generosity above and beyond all other kinds of giving.
It says in verse 43, everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs
were taking place through the apostles. They were seeing God answer prayer. They were seeing
the fellowship of the believers taking place. They were worshiping the resurrected and living
Lord Jesus Christ. All those things describe a spiritually healthy environment. That's
where they were. They were practicing spiritual health. They were being reminded of why the
church gathered. By the way, the Church of Jesus Christ or Christianity as some call
it is not a religion. It's a group of people following a living Lord Jesus Christ. Some
people want to make it out to be a religion, but that's not what you see recorded in these
pages. They did not get together and say, we need to start a religion. We need to organize
it. We need to make sure that everybody knows our rules and laws and all those things and
we're just going to build monuments to somebody or even to ourselves and we're going to call
it a religious system of some kind. Hey, let's pack Christ's name on it. That's not how the
church began. The church began with a group of people that were so enamored in following
Christ, so in love with Him because of His obvious love for them that they met together
to refresh and renew and remember all that He had done for them. That's what was happening.
Very natural, very grassroots, very normal for the New Testament church. So that's what
was happening and all that they'd seen happen was fueling this eventual act of generosity
that you see in these pages. They'd watch Jesus live. They'd watch Him minister. They'd
watch Him die. They'd watch Him rise again. They'd watch the promise of the Holy Spirit
be fulfilled and He came down upon them and with them at Pentecost. So now they're growing.
They're walking with Christ. They're praying. They're experiencing the life that Jesus called
them to on a whole different level. In fact, it says in John chapter 14 verse 12, Jesus
is speaking to the disciples saying, I must go away. And when I go away, greater things
than these you shall see because I go to be with the Father. And you'll have the presence
of the Holy Spirit. You will in multiple forms have many people who are seeking to do what
I was doing on this planet and you'll see greater things when I'm gone to be with the
Father, greater in terms of magnitude or scope and everything that Jesus said was coming
to pass in this New Testament church and it was amazing. And one of the lessons they were
learning was the lesson of generosity. It's not the only lesson, but it was a big one.
Now what we're talking about in Acts chapter two is not tithing. Tithing is in a different
portion of the scripture and we won't speak a lot about tithing today other than to say
that many of these were Jewish believers who had already committed to that kind of giving
in their Jewish worship of God, Jehovah, to God. And in their worship of him tithing was
a part of what they do. It's evident there was already established a practice in those
Jewish believers and even more so in their dedication to Christ. The teaching of Jesus
as you read the Bible affirms the tithe, tithe that does not remove the tithe. Jesus came
to fulfill the law, but he also came to help us know how to live life in every way. We
all as we read the scriptures understand that the Bible says that the tithe belongs to the
Lord. When I receive a paycheck, the first thing I remember is what I was taught and
what I read in the Bible that the first 10th belongs to the Lord. It's a lot easier to
learn that when you're little by the way. One of my stories is my dad gave me 10 dimes.
I got a dollar a week for allowance by the way. A dollar a week for allowance. That doesn't
sound like a lot, but that's a lot in a five and dime store where you sell candy and buy
it for a penny apiece. Anybody remember a five and dime story? Anybody remember penny
candy? You could get sick on that stuff for a dollar. You know you could do that really
easy. And I can remember he gave me my allowance in dimes and I used to wonder about that.
Quarters were bigger, they were shinier. A silver dollar would be even better, but he
gave me the dimes and I learned later on the reason he gave me the dimes is so I could
easily take a dime and give it to the Lord. And I remember putting a dime in the offering
plate or in my envelope. We were Baptist so we did it with envelope. Put it in the envelope.
Every week when I was like six, seven, eight years old it became a practice. And as I grew
older in life I realized it was a spiritual practice. It was a wise practice and I learned
God provided for me in ways that I had no idea he would do when I was worried about
that dime. I didn't need to be worried about it. The tithe belongs to the Lord. As he provides
for us then we return the tithe to him. Now you see the phrase there where it talks about
the apostles teaching. That's part of what they were talking about as they met together.
And what this is is the apostles were refreshing and rehearsing to all that were there what
Jesus had taught them. The scrolls with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The gospels had not been
all penned yet. They were not all together yet. So these apostles were teaching them
what Jesus had taught them. There's a passage in Matthew chapter 23 verse 23 where Jesus
is rebuking the Pharisees and the scribes. And I want you to notice what it says because
he rebukes them for their heart but also commends them for their giving. It says, Roll you scribes
and Pharisees hypocrites for you tithe meant and deal in common. These are small herbs
that are part of what they gave as a result of all that they had grown in their garden
or all that they had. You tithe meant and deal in common and have neglected the weightier
provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness. But these are the things you
should have done without neglecting the others. In other words Jesus is not saying oh you
shouldn't even think about the tithe. He was saying you should think about your hearts
as you give a tithe. Jesus gave us some good indications that the New Testament church
was to practice this idea of tithing. We teach that here at our church. All of our deacons
commit to that. Our teachers are to commit to that. Our staff obviously commit to that.
We just believe God blesses that in huge huge ways. But that's not what this passage is
talking about. This passage is talking about something above and beyond that. It is generosity
and generosity is going beyond the tithe. Generosity is something that God moves in
our heart to do when a need is presented or we're made aware of or even if we don't know
why but God lays on our heart to do a certain thing, to give a certain thing. Generosity
happens as a result of obedience to that. And the reason I want to mention tithes to
you today is because we won't experience generosity if we haven't learned to give regularly in
the first place. There's something about that regular giving that lets me trust God enough
that when he leads me to do something above and beyond I'm able to do it because I'm already
in the practice of giving. And I'm aware there are people today that haven't yet learned
to trust God for their finances. Enough to tithe and I get that. There's a process sometimes
with people but it's such a great lesson to learn. It's such an amazing thing that God
does in providing for us and getting us to trust him in that way. So all this to say,
these people were walking in spiritual health. They were worshiping together. They were,
they were fellowshiping. They were understanding the word, the teachings of Jesus. And then
there is another thing that God began to unfold with them in the way of generosity. And that's
where I want you to see this second piece that's in Acts chapter two. Generosity flows
out of obedience. Notice what it says in verse 45. And all those who had believed were together
and had all things in common and they began selling their property and possessions and
were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Now let me be clear about this
text right here because so many have taken this text and said a variety of things about
it that are not true. What was taking place was a series of acts of obedience to the Holy
Spirit. Now remember the Holy Spirit has fallen upon them. They're amazed by his presence,
his power. And they're amazed by the fact that when they're all gathered together, they
sense his presence. And what's happening is he's leading them to do these things and they're
even selling property and everything else they're led to do. What I want you to also
see is that this was not a system of coercion or shame. It's not done out of a sense of
privilege or to even the levels of what people had or didn't have. It wasn't communism. It
wasn't communal living. All those things I've heard point into this text as that's a verification
for why we should be communists or have communal living. Let me just say it's saying none of
those things. But it is saying that when the Holy Spirit led them to sacrificial giving,
that they were following the leadership of the Holy Spirit. If you jump down to Acts
chapter four, two chapters later, there's a further description here. It says all who
were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay
them at the apostles' feet and they would be distributed to each as any had need. So
again these gifts were free acts of obedience under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. He
was leading them in giving, leading them in generosity, leading them in loving and encouraging
them to trust him with all this. And they were giving these extravagant gifts so that
the apostles could distribute those in whatever way was necessary. Now if you're really bold
and you're really courageous and you want to read how serious God takes giving, go to
Acts chapter five. Anybody know what Acts five talks about? Two people named Ananias
and Sapphira who were not going to end well when it comes to their giving. And the whole
of Acts chapter five reminds us that God takes giving very seriously. But I want you to see
something here in Acts chapter five. When Peter confronted Ananias and Sapphira, because
what was happening was they said they were going to sell their property and they were
going to give it all to God and they didn't give it all to God and they lied. Peter said
why did you lie to the Holy Spirit and to others? But there's a line in here that I
want you to see. Peter said while it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after
it was sold, was it not under your control? Peter said look, this is something you've
chosen to do and lie about it. You had the freedom to act in obedience to the Lord or
not in obedience to the Lord, but it's not going to end well for you because you decided
to lie to the Holy Spirit and to others. Now I'll just say you have to be courageous to
read Acts chapter five. It doesn't end well and it tells us that God takes giving very
seriously and that we ought to listen to him well and obey him when he leads us. You say
well how do I navigate all that? Here's a simple way, simple formula. Just obey God
and leave the rest to him. Somebody say those three words with me. Just obey God. Say it
with me. Just obey God. How do you do anything else he leads you to do? Just obey God and
leave the rest up to him. He leads you to witness to somebody that you're a little bit
afraid to witness to. Just obey God and leave the rest up to him. He's leading you to prayer
for somebody else because you don't know what's going on in their life and you feel a burden
for them. How do you respond to that? That pressure? Just obey God and leave the rest
up to him. It's true of every aspect of the Christian life. If he's alive, if he's real,
if the Holy Spirit is inside of us we can trust him by just obeying God and leaving
the rest up to him. So these gifts in Acts 2 and Acts 4 were free acts of obedience.
They were listening to the Lord. They were following his leadership and incredible things
began to happen. Generosity takes place and it's powerful. I just say sometimes generosity
is not always a financial gift. It's not always a sacrificial gift. Sometimes it's extremely
generous to give yourself to something that needs to take place but you're doing it a
sacrifice to yourself. I'm going to tell you about two acts of obedience that happened
to me more than 25 years ago now. But these two acts of obedience are two acts that I
think demonstrate the generosity of God and how he orchestrates all this. More than 25
years ago I was a pastor and my wife and I were called to come to another church and
as we were called to go to that church, the church let us know their financial condition
and it was disastrous. It was bad. In fact when we asked them for the salary, it took
them a long time for them to come up with a salary and the salary was much less than
what I was making at my previous church. By then we figured out how to have kids and we
had almost six kids by then. When you figure out how to have a lot of kids then you also
need to figure out how to make enough income to feed those kids, right? But the offer that
they gave me was very low and I talked to them a little bit about that because I really
generally felt God was leading us to take that role. So we took the role and we accepted
that salary and they told us, you know, when we become debt free, when we remove all this
big debt then we'll adjust the salary, we'll be more generous with that and I said that's
fine, we'll trust the Lord with that. So over the next few years we trusted the Lord with
that. It wasn't easy, it wasn't something that just happened like that. I was actually
had a couple of side streams of income. Back then we just called them part time jobs but
they're side streams now, right? It's a better way to say it. I did everything I needed to
do in order to provide for my family during that time. One day I got a phone call from
somebody I didn't know. I'd never met them before. They didn't know our situation, they
didn't know anything about our church. And this person says, I'm going to deliver an
envelope to you and I need you just to receive it. And I was curious of course, couldn't
wait to get that envelope, couldn't wait to open it up, had no idea what it was. And
when I got that envelope and opened it up, it was two full years of salary that that
church had been paying me. Two full years of salary. I didn't meet that person until
later, a couple of years, about a year down the road I met that person and thanked them
and told them a little bit of the story. And this person said, listen, I just want you
to know I had more joy in giving you that than you can possibly imagine. And I said
back to this person, oh, you can't imagine how much joy I had in receiving that. And
in that story, two acts of obedience, obeying what God tells you to do and trusting that
God will provide through the obedience of maybe somebody else who's just doing what
he told them to do. You say, well, how do you organize all that? And the answer is you
don't. The God who speaks the existence into existence, the whole universe into existence,
the God who knows how molecular structure works, who knows how to put all the stars
in the universe, that God can so coordinate, so control, he can so organize things that
he meets you need, but you just need to be obedient to him. Whether it's an act of service
or an act of giving, just do it and trust God with the rest. That was happening in this
New Testament church. And all kinds of people were giving up all kinds of property in order
to demonstrate that their trust in God was secure and that God was able to meet those
amazing needs and joy surrounds that kind of generosity. If you jump over to second
Corinthians, there's a great passage there in chapter nine, verses six to seven, where
Paul now is writing to the church at Corinth. And he said this, he said, now, this I say,
he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion.
And then he says, for God loves a cheerful giver. That's what he wants you to experience,
by the way. God doesn't need your money, but he wants you to be involved in how he provides
for needs all around and generosity helps move you into that place of watching him provide
and the joy that comes with it. Now, if you keep reading Acts chapter two, you're going
to find that generosity expands ministry. It's really obvious. The last part of this
verse or passage says, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day, those who were
being saved. All these things, the spiritual health I'm talking about, this corporate worship,
the connecting with others, this being able to rehearse what the words of Jesus really
were about, praying for one another, having community together. All these things, along
with generosity, allowed the ministry to thrive and to reach out to others. And then by the
time you get to Acts chapter six, a large number of widows who needed attention, who
needed daily food. I mean, you're pretty desperate in a culture when you need the daily serving
of food and the church was providing that, then that was all happening as that generosity
was unfolding. So the church followed that pattern, met needs around them. And in verse
seven of Acts chapter six, it said, the word of God kept on spreading and the number of
disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests,
that is the Jewish priests were becoming obedient to the faith. Generosity expands ministries,
really amazing. Now, before you came into the, you may have received a card and if you
didn't, you can certainly get one on the way out, but it looks something like this right
here. You have that? If you have that, I want you to look at it with me for a moment. Now,
many of you have already maybe read what's on the other side of that. If you don't have
it, you can get one on the way out, but I'm going to talk about that for just a few moments
because what I want you to see is how the generosity of God working through this church
over the last 20 or more years has increased the way ministry happens to countless thousands
and 10,000s of lives. I'm going to read it on the backside of this. Over the past generation,
you've led the way. I'm saying you, Cross City Church, we said this in our earlier service,
we've said it north, we're saying it everywhere. You have led the way in these ways. You retired
the church debt. Through your generosity, we retired over $6 million of debt in 2007
and we remain debt free until this day. Folks, we just completed a $25 million renovation
project debt free and I think you ought to celebrate a little bit about that. I do. I
celebrate that. Generosity helps make that happen. We helped launch Kids Beach Club.
Kids Beach Club and their ministry and public schools has distributed 75,000 Bibles presented
to the gospel, 116,310 times, led 10,000 kids to Christ and 155,000 kids listen to the gospel
weekly through KBC TV and you helped launch Kids Beach Club. Amen. Amen. I don't know
if you're familiar with Six Stones but Six Stones was started in 2009. It served over
59,000 people in food, in regular food, led 4800 people to Jesus in our community. We've
rebuilt almost a thousand homes with Six Stones. I just could go on and on about that ministry
but do you realize it was launched in this room with a group of people like yourself
and if you were in that room that day and you stood up and said, yes, we'll be generous
for the cause of our community to make a difference for the cause of Christ and it's still making
a difference. Amen to you for that. Give the Lord a hand for that as well. What's wrong
with clapping? We launched and invested Mid-City Women's Center. 38,784 babies have been saved.
The gospel shared 46,000 times, 3,266 people have made professions of faith in 40 years
of this church supporting that. One more time, give a hand to the Lord. Wow, what a powerful
thing. And as I already shared, you gave more than 14 million, I guess I need to say more
zeros to that, 14 million to this renovation here of our buildings. We watched the Lord
provide for us in just unpredictable ways. We sold a piece of property across the street.
We bought for $1 million. We sold it for $9.5 million and God provided for us to prepare
for the next generation and He's done so well. Part of what I want to share with you today,
the announcement I want to share with you today, has to do with generosity. Our North
campus that we launched five years ago has been working for five years. They've been
in five different locations, by the way, five different locations. Pandemic shut down the
school they were in and they went to a hotel, then they went to a health club, then they
went back to a school and then finally to another school. Five different times they've
moved in five years and I celebrated five years with them out there this morning at
10 o'clock service and it's a great thing to watch those folks out there in the north
part of Tarrant County doing everything they can to get the gospel out to folks there.
But an act of generosity about a year ago, a year and a half ago now, gave them $2 million
to look for land. So we've been looking. One day, well, the campus pastor and I were
in my car I think. We were on the piece of property. We actually drove onto the piece
of property that we're praying about and ultimately the owner didn't want to sell that piece of
property but we were staying there and we knew we had $2 million that had been given.
We knew that it was going to take a little bit more than that but we also knew that that's
the piece that we really were praying about. And while we were seated there, I said let's
make a phone call. We made a phone call to a friend of both of ours, a member of our
church, and I said we're on a piece of property that we hope will someday be the piece that
we build on but whether it's this property or anything else, you've asked if you could
be kept up to speed on where we're at. This is where we're at. And as I said, ultimately
we didn't get that piece of property and that gentleman said, okay, thanks for letting me
know and I'll be in prayer about it. Well, just last week he called us and he said, I
want you to pick up a package. And actually our staff member Kent Wells said, I'm going
to be late to a staff meeting because I need to pick up a package and I don't like people
to be late to staff meetings and he knows that. So he said, trust me John, you're going
to want me to be late to this meeting. I said, okay. He goes to the meeting and he comes
back with a $3 million check for the North property. And that's my announcement I have
to make today, the generosity of someone that says, I want this to happen. Now all I'm doing
is talking to you about how God works in ways of generosity, how he moves in one heart or
more than one heart to bring about expanded ministry. And that's what's taking place.
If you think generosity doesn't bless people, then you're not really listening. You're not
really looking around at all the different ways generosity over the years has blessed
people. But let me just say, it's not just about generosity. Every generous act, every
time we get, every time we obey the Lord and doing what he's told us to do, the bigger
picture is we reflect the heart and the love of a generous God who gave his own son for
us. I read this last week and I want to read it to you, something I found on a website
called gotquestions.org. I was just doing a little research on generosity and I think
it was a great paragraph. God's generosity is everywhere around us. God created a planet
called earth that is perfectly made to sustain us and provide for our needs and pleasures.
He supplied us with color, light, sound, and the ability to taste and enjoy and hear and
appreciate and touch and be satisfied above all. God demonstrated his generosity when
he offered his son as a sacrifice to alone die for our sins. In the face of such generosity,
we can only say thanks be to God for this indescribable gift. The gift of Jesus to sinful
mankind was the ultimate act of generosity and all we do as we act in obedience to God
in areas of generosity is reflect that love of God. He's our provider but he also is
the one that loves us and sacrificed his own son for us. I want you to think about this
when you give or when you listen to the Lord lead you to do something generous, whether
it's help someone that lives next door to you, whether it's write a check for some ministry
you're aware of, whatever it is. And again, this is not an appeal to you to do any one
thing but for you to rather think about generosity as reflecting the character of God in your
daily life. God wants us to glorify him and that's what reflecting his character really
is is glorifying God, honoring him and his generosity in the way we live. So I'm going
to conclude today by asking you a series of questions. Are you trusting God with your
life? Are you trusting him with your direction, with your purpose? Some of you in this room
need to be asked, are you trusting him for your salvation? An incredible gift Jesus died
on the cross to give you of eternal life and forgiveness of sin. Are you trusting him with
your finances, with your future, with your joy? I can't remember one act that God has
led me to do in the way of generosity that kept me from having joy I otherwise would
have pursued with that money. No, I gave it as he led and got greater joy than that thing,
whatever that is, could have brought me. Trust God with your life. Trust God with your eternity.
Trust him with your giving. If I can trust God for all time and all eternity, I can trust
him with a few dollars in my bank account. I can trust him to lead me in a way that will
ultimately honor him. That's what I'm asking you to do. That's what the New Testament church
did. Learn the practice of generosity. And then why does God move in your life in ways
that you didn't anticipate and blesses people in a way you didn't know was possible? In
just a moment I'm going to close us in prayer and there's a couple of invitations I want
to give you today. First of all, always, always I want to ask you if you want to talk about
making a decision for Christ, I steer you towards these two decision stations at the
exits of our door. We'll have people behind those decision stations waiting to talk to
you about relationship with Christ. What does it mean to trust Christ for your salvation,
to be forgiven of sin? What does that mean? We can have that conversation. Secondly, I
invite you to our guest reception because there I would love to meet you. If you're
new here, I would love to meet you, talk to you. I have a book I'd love to give you. I'd
love to answer any questions that you may have. Next, I want to urge you, I want to
invite you to invite others to come to what's happening next week. As you leave today, you'll
see this Healthy Home Conference brochure. We'll be answering the question, what was
I created to be? In other words, we'll be talking about identity all day long through
our services and our special breakouts and our connection classes. Identity is a really,
really big deal today. There's even a politics identity thing that's happening today. There
is gender identity, there is sexual identity, all these things. But let's get back to the
original question, what did God create me to be? And we're going to answer that question
throughout the day. This will show you a program of what's happening. Now, if you really want
to get some really deep answers to those questions and how culture is asking them, we're going
to have a Q&A and a panel on the stage at our two o'clock session. As you'll see the
schedule, you'll see we're coming back after lunch for the two o'clock session with some
great leaders in the kingdom that will be helping answer the questions and many questions
that are happening in our culture today. Let me also say to you that how we share these
truths will be loving and kind and yet as clear as scripture, which is what gives us
the understanding of identity that we should have. So let's stand together for a closing
word of prayer and I invite you to all these things. Father, in Jesus' name, so, so very
grateful today that you have called us together to worship. Father, I pray today that as we
look at the pages of scripture, the practice of the New Testament church, as we listen
to the still small voice of your leadership, Lord, I pray that we might be bold enough
to be generous people, trusting you with all we have. Thank you, Father, for how you provide
for us. Lord, we trust you today. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Have
a wonderful Lord's Day.