Generosity: A Heartfelt Response to God's Grace

1) "What a privilege and honor it is to be able to serve people. I mean, everybody's in a different place in a different space when it comes to their relationship with Jesus. And so for our missions team, they are so fired up for what God is doing in their life that, man, it is just coming from an overflow that they want to get down there and do all they can to be a blessing. And so, as I said, just be praying for our team. Set a reminder on your phone. Be thinking of them, because while we get to be the hands and feet of Jesus here locally in our communities, we love our opportunity to be on missions trips to be the hands and feet of Jesus globally." [09:23] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "Because it's one thing to have faith. It's one thing to believe in God and make sure that you're good. It's another thing to take that faith and allow it to overflow into faithfulness so that it impacts the people in our lives, our friends, our family, people that God puts in our lives every single day. And then what does this look like? What does our faith turning into overflowing faithfulness look like when it comes to our giving and when it comes to our generosity? And that's what we're going to talk about here today." [10:47] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "They are being tested by many troubles. Like Paul gets really excited and says, hey, they're going through life. How many of you guys have ever experienced real life? Raise your hand, hand raised, hand emoji. Yeah. Life can bring its struggles. Life can bring its troubles. So already we're connected with these people in Macedonia. They're going through real troubles and struggles and they are what? They broke. They brokered and broke. He says, not that they're poor, they're very poor. Like they broke. Okay. So here they're going through struggles. They don't have a whole lot of money, but somebody say, but. They are also filled with what? Not just joy, abundant joy, overflowing joy, which has what? So we got real people, real everyday life people like you and I, who are going through struggles, who Paul says and makes it clear, listen, they don't have a lot of money. They don't have a lot of resources, but they are filled with an abundant joy. And where does that joy come from? It comes from the overflow of rich generosity that's in their lives." [13:33] (75 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Because here's the thing, their giving was a result of their thankfulness to God for all God had done for them. You see, they were, minding themselves. And yeah, that's exciting. We're going to have a lot of opportunities to respond today, but these people were their response and generosity was because of their thankfulness first to what God had already done in their life. You know what? Yes, they lived in the here and now they lived with the everyday life and the struggles and the things that came their way. But they also lived with every opportunity that came their way because not only did they live in the here and now, but they also lived with the things that came their way. They didn't live in the present, but they constantly look forward to the when and then and what was coming." [15:05] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "They realized their opportunity to be a blessing in any way they possibly could. Where they weren't blessed financially, where they weren't blessed socially, I'm telling you what, they saw themselves blessed spiritually. Because with God and having a relationship with Jesus, they knew that that's all that they needed. They were saved, they were rescued, and they had a desire to invest. Let me say invest in other people's lives." [17:50] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "They were giving out of a sacrifice and a desire to glorify God by impacting others through their generosity. They saw an opportunity right in front of them to bring glory to God because of what God had done in their life through their generosity. They considered, man, I pray for a heart like this, even in myself every single day. They considered investing in others and being a part of other people's stories, a privilege, a privilege." [20:48] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "As followers of Jesus here today, as Christians, we are told in the Bible that giving generosity is a part of our growth in our relationship with Jesus. It's a part of our worship and devotion to Jesus. Not because somebody asked you to, not because somebody's trying to pull on your heartstrings, but because it is a step of obedience in our worship to God who has given his all. To us through his son, Jesus Christ. Amen." [23:33] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "Because never forget again, as followers of Jesus, just like these people in the church of Macedonia, giving is also our response to God's grace towards us. If we're here today, living and breathing here in this room, watching online means God's got a plan for your life. You're here for a reason. God's given you another blessed day. To live out the plan and purpose that he has for your life. That's grace that we're extended every single day that you and I don't deserve. And so when we give our time, talent, and treasure, when we give out of a posture of generosity, we are responding to what God has already freely given to us. And that's grace." [24:57] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "Remember these Christians in Macedonia were giving out of a sacrifice and a desire to glorify God, period. That's why they gave. But they also saw their opportunity to impact others through this generosity. And that became the blessing in their life. Not only were they blessing others, but they were being blessed because of their giving. And let me say it one more time, because we read it in the Bible. These were real life people. With real life problems. That experienced real life poverty and persecution. They were going through it. And I think that was elevated because guess what? We experienced real life as we all attested and raised our hand earlier. But through their giving, they were able to grow and stretch in their faithfulness. Faithfulness of how God could show up in their life, but faithfulness of what God could do in and through their life to impact other people." [34:26] (59 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)