So glad to see you all this morning. If you're joining us online or you're in the room, my name is Jamie. I'm the lead pastor. And I'm super excited to be able to worship with you today. If you're here for the first time.

Or maybe you've been coming for a few weeks. You've heard us talk lately about joining the journey. And in the seat back in front of you. It's kind of a recap of what I preached last week. We know that the Lord commanded us to gather.

Be gathered together. Not so much as some are in the habit of not doing. Like, we don't want to be in the habit of not being here. We want to be in the habit of being here. And God has brought us together in this journey.

This journey together. That we would come together. That we would connect. We would engage. And as a result, that we would grow in our faith.

And we would go and do whatever it is the Lord has called us to do. And in the back today, maybe you're saying, hey, I'm ready. To join that journey. To become— to become a part. A partner.

A member. But if you remember from the message last week, we talked about member doesn't mean you've joined an elite club and you're going to get 10% off at Chick-fil-A. We might can make that happen. Just kidding. Just kidding.

We're not going to make that happen. It's not what membership's about. It's not about being in an elite club or showing up 20 years later and say, well, I'm a member of your church. Well, no, you're not. You're not here.

Being a member means that you are the finger, the toe, the foot, the hand, or whatever. And you're finding that place that God's called you to do and to be. And our body isn't complete without all the members together. And so if that's you today, that QR that's on this card in the back of every seat is what you would want to click. And what will happen next?

You'll fill out that form and then we will contact you and you'll have an interview or a meeting with a pastor. To verify 2 things. Number one, are you saved? And have you been baptized by immersion? And then moving from that.

Like, we really want to work hard on making sure that we celebrate you becoming a part of that journey. So if you're ready to join that journey, click that today. Or maybe if you're like, I don't know. About a year and a half ago, I came to Discover and I never got that packet. Well, probably something didn't get done.

So click it. And if that's the case, we can let you know, oh yeah, you're good. Or, wait a minute. We need one more little piece to get that completed. So I want to invite you to definitely be praying and considering that as we continue in this series about explicit discipleship.

Those commands that Jesus gave us that are fully revealed. They're not expressed with vagueness or by implication or ambiguity. Leaving no question as to meaning or intent. That's what we're talking about. And we've talked about faith.

We've talked about being baptized. We've talked about repentance. We've talked about walking in Christ. We've talked about loving one another and going and making disciples. And then that one last week, to go and gather.

This week, we're moving more into the next 2 or 3 messages about what does that mean to the people who are around me? I have this connection with the Lord. I'm walking with Him. I'm growing. But what does that mean for those around me?

And this message today hits on that as it takes us to the next level. So I want to ask you to turn to the book of Luke 6:38. Find that passage. And then I want you to back up to Mark 12:41. So there's 2 passages.

Let me repeat those again. Luke 6:38. In Mark 12:41. Now I know. You know, today again.

If you're visiting for the first time. Been coming for a while. You haven't had a chance to connect. We want to invite you to stop at our new here shelf. That's right outside the back doors of our worship center.

To let us know that you came. We'd love to give you a gift. But today we have a special friend of mine. Well, 2 friends of mine. I'm not leaving Ann out of that.

But Miles and Ann Williams. This is. This is Randy's second son. But Miles and I are really good friends. And he serves over in Alabama.

And they're up visiting their parents today. And guys, we're so glad y'all are here. Thanks for being here. And if y'all get a chance, stop by and say hey to them. And just so you know, have a face with a name.

Stand with me as we read these 2 passages today.

Luke 6:30. Luke 6:38 says this, give. That's a command. It's an imperative. And it will be given to you.

They will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return. Now turn backwards to Mark 12:41. It reads this way. And He, Jesus, sat down across from the treasury of the temple and began observing how people were putting their money into the treasury.

And many rich people were putting in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in 2 small copper coins, which amount to about a cent. Calling His disciples to Himself, He said to them, truly I say to you, This poor widow put more than all the contributors to the treasury. For they put in out of their surplus. But she put in out of her poverty.

Put all that she owned. All that she had to live on. And there's a reason she did that. Let's explore that today. Lord, speak to us today.

Open our hearts to your generosity. And make us generous in all that we do. In Jesus' name. Amen. If you'll have a seat.

Now I'm gonna go back to Luke 6:38. Many times in Scripture, writers use the art of contrast to either heighten the character of one character or to heighten an attribute in that person. You see it in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel where we meet King Saul and And the mistakes that he made. And it helps to heighten or elevate the character we see in King David. In this passage, we see the same thing going on.

If you back up to 6:31. We know this verse very well. It says, treat others the way— or the same way that you want them to treat you. Now, In some ways, that's a little bit vague. We know this is the Golden Rule.

Like, man, I really would love for everybody in this room to give me $50 today.

That's not what that means. Like, I don't go up and give you $50 so everybody then gives me $50. It's not a plan for prosperity. It's the evidence of God working his character through us to treat others the way that you would want to treat them means that I want to treat them the way that God has treated me. How do I know that?

Well, look at the verses following that. In fact, he gives 3 examples, 3 contrasts where he compares the character of the child of God to just a lost sinner in the world. He says, if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

In other words, your behavior in love should be greater than what the world is doing. You know, we defined love as something that can't be forced. Right? So to love somebody else, if I'm loving somebody so they reciprocate it, it nullifies actually the definition of love. But then he gives another one.

He said, if you only do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners know how to do good things. Right?

The child of God should be doing it differently and for different reasons. Like the doing good of a child of God should be better than the doing good of the world because it's based in righteousness. And then the third one. He said, if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? In other words, if the only time that something transfers from your hand to somebody else is because you expect them to give it back to you with interest, well, what good does that do?

Sinners do the same thing. So he says, sinners love. Sinners do good things. And sinners give.

He said, now. Let me give you the extreme example. He said, but I tell you. Check this out. To love your enemy.

To do good for them. And to lend and not expect anything in return.

In your life and mine, we have those people who are our contrast. We would say they are the farthest away from us. The least deserving. We look around at people around us that might be in need and we may take a look at them and go, you know, you've made a lot of mistakes in your life. I'm not going to give you a dime.

Or we look at people and we judge them by their exterior. Sometimes by the color of their skin.

Sometimes by what street they grew up on. You know, U2 has a— the band has a song called Where the Streets Have No Name. That's exactly the theme of that song. It's like, it shouldn't matter what street you grew up on. It shouldn't matter what color your skin is or what your heritage or lineage is.

He says, love them and don't expect anything in return and your reward will be great. You will be sons of the Most High. For he himself is kind and ungrateful even to evil men. There's a contrast. God is saying, I don't want you to behave like those in the world.

I want you to do better. And so we love unconditionally. We do good without expecting return. And we give to not get rich. You following?

Well, why would anybody do that? Well, this verse right here says, be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful. Merciful to who? To the least likely person that I would ever want to help. The least likely person that because I may look at them and make a judgment.

Or I may look at them and condemn them. Or I may look at them and excuse and push them away. God is saying, no. It should actually be the opposite. Look.

Look at verse 37. Similar to the language of Matthew 7. He says, do not judge and you will not be judged. We may look at somebody and say, you know what, they've made a lot of financial mistakes in their life. I'm never going to help them.

But what if they sat down and looked at your budget and saw all the waste that you have in your budget? I confess, this morning I went to Dunkin' and I paid $3.49 for a large cup of coffee with 4 creamers. 2 weeks ago I bought a 1.5-pound bag of 8 o'clock coffee. It was $20.

How many cups of coffee can I make out of that $20 bag of coffee than paying every day for a $3.50 cup of coffee from Dunkin'? If I stopped every day, that's about $30.

Folks, the reason that we don't give— can I suggest why we don't give and why we're not generous in life? It's because you're scared.

You're scared. You hide behind your wealth and your success, your money accounts, your 503, your 401, your life insurance policies. You hide behind that, but you don't put your faith and trust in the one who holds all things in his hands. He said to be merciful as your Father is merciful, who loves the unlovable, who does good to the undeserving, and lends to those who can never pay back. So then when you get to verse 38, this is not a formula for you to say, you know, if I start giving, God's going to prosper me and I'm going to be rich.

That is not what this verse is saying. This verse is saying, give and it will be given to you. You become a conduit for the generosity of God. Well, how do I know God is generous? Did you just breathe?

Are you not sitting in a room with shelter over your head? You may not have had a meal at Waffle House this morning and got the all-star breakfast, but I bet you had something in your stomach.

We are so spoiled.

And yet when somebody brings up the idea of generosity, we immediately shut down. This is the message. I thought about this. This, this is the message we ought to shout about. God has blessed you and me so much.

I get to be a mouthpiece and a conduit for the generosity of God. And I want to do it with gratitude and joy and passion. Because I don't know whose life might be touched and changed just by giving them a cup of cold water. Let's pray. I'm serious.

Like, it is an opportunity. He said in this verse that he would more than fill me to the full. See, he's talking about a, a sack of grain. We don't deal with sacks of grain. You know what we deal with?

Green beans in cans. So every year that we can green beans, Laura's dad comes over and we sit and we have a stringing and popping party. And kids, if you've never had a stringing and popping party, you're missing it. It's the best.

You then go in there and they boil and blanch those beans and they begin to put them in the jar. And Laura's dad, he's meticulous about that jar. Like, he wants as many beans in that jar as he can get. So he takes this this tool he has and he presses them in there.

I mean, packs them in there. Why? He wants to press it down. And then he'll take that jar and he'll tap it on the counter so that it continues to press it down. But then it gets all the air bubbles out of the way.

It's the same concept that he's taking you and me and we're that sack of grain. And he's pressing his blessing down in us. So it fills it and stretches it. And then he picks the bag up and he drops it on the ground, gets all that loose air out of there. And you know it'll settle down, but then he just keeps putting it in there and keeps putting it in there.

That you and I tap into the generosity that God's birthing in our heart. God just uses us as a conduit, not so that you can pad your 401k, but so that you can impact this world with the love of Jesus. That's what generosity is about. Maybe for the first time today, you will be convinced you can give and not worry about it.

Sometimes we'll sit here and go, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. When are you going to bring up— I'm going to bring up the word tithe in just a minute. Don't worry. But I'm telling you, it's not something to be ashamed of or diminished about. Like, it's a great opportunity.

We don't tithe. So that God replaces it with more. We tithe because God's already given to me.

I see 5 reasons why you and I today can give with no hesitation. The first one is this. Everything that we have belongs to God. Because everything does belong to God. I can become a faith giver.

Not just a tither. Not just an offerer. But I can become A faith giver. Because when I give, I'm actually releasing the thing in this world that would hold my pride. That would hold my security.

Sometimes people in third world countries have more joy because they're not putting their faith in their pocketbook. But in the one who freely gives. Did Jesus ever talk about this? Wait a minute. He did.

He said, look at the birds of the air. They don't toil nor spin, but their heavenly Father— what? He provides. And look at the flowers of the field and how they're arrayed and clothed. Did God not do that?

If he'll do it for the birds and he'll do it for the flowers, how much more will he do it for you and me? We can be generous because God has already been abundantly generous. And if you're here today and there's a There's a part of your heart that's got a little cynicism for God. Because you're just like, well, God hadn't done that for me.

Check yourself. And look around at what God has done for you. You've lost people in your life. Well, look around at the people God's raised up to be alongside of you. I lost that job I had for years.

Well, maybe the next job that's coming is going to be better than the first one. Instead of looking at it with pessimism, what if you looked at it with optimism. Because our God promised to bless the blesser. He promised to sustain the one who gives. Let's dig into that.

I want to prove it to you. I want to proof text it. Everything belongs to God. Look at Psalm— or don't look there. Let me read these passages to you.

Go back and read them at your leisure. Psalm 24:1, the earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. That's everybody in this room right now. You belong to God. Now, you may not be known by God.

If you're living in sin, you don't know Jesus Christ, you're separated from him because of your sin. If you stay that way, you leave this world, you will remain separated from him, lost in your sin. Destined for a devil's hell. Do you want to do that? I don't want to do that.

What I want to do is tap into this life that I can have in Christ where I can experience the God who holds all things in His hand.

Psalm 50:10. It was one of Laura's mom's favorite verses. We'd come and we'd talk to her mom and say like, man, we're just— things just seem tight. And we're kind of afraid this isn't going to happen. And she'd stop us and she'd say this.

Did He not say that He owns the cattle on 1,000 hills? Listen to what it says. For every beast of the forest is mine. The cattle on 1,000 hills. And then He keeps going.

'Cause there's a reason. There's a good context here. I know every bird of the mountain. And everything that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you.

For the world is mine and all it contains. You know what He's talking about there? How people were taking pride in their sacrifice.

God ultimately sacrificed everything for you and for me.

Philippians chapter 2 says that the Son of God left heaven and emptied himself and took on the form of a bondservant.

And he died on a cross so that he could give to you. Not because we provide anything. God's saying, I don't need anything from you. Even if I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. What giving and generosity does is opens up this door in my life for me to tap into the generosity He's pouring through me.

Psalm 37:25. Write that one down. Psalm 37:25. I have been young and now I am old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging for bread.

Well, what makes you righteous? What makes anybody righteous? He has a name. What's his name? Say it loud.

His name is Jesus. His righteousness is the gift he's given to us. You have no righteousness. And even if you're here today and you are a consistent tither and a giver, that does not make you righteous. You give because he's righteous.

You see, God generously gives to us.

Every breath I breathe. Everybody came in this morning and loved that 49-degree weather. Did we not? I mean, I loved it because I got to wear my pullover again, man. Now I'm sweating.

But I mean, it's like, man, wasn't it a beautiful morning? Last night, Laura and I went to dinner. We had a date. Micah was at homecoming. And you know what we noticed?

The beauty of the full moon. And it was still full this morning. Was it not gorgeous? Guys, it's the little things that God just does and knocks and constantly reminds us, look at what I'm doing. Look at how I'm speaking.

Look at how I'm blessing. In Matthew 5:45, he's talking again about loving your enemies and praying for them. And he makes the point that Even the evil and the good. He pours out rain and sun so that— what? They can have food.

He's even gracious to those who hate him. And he's calling us to go, well then why would I not be generous to those that even hate me? In 1 Chronicles 29:14, a beautiful prayer by King David at the end of his reign. He says, but who am I? Who am I?

And who are my people that we should come and be able to offer as generously as this? What is this small little gift? You ever like, if you've ever flown, does it not blow your mind when you're up in the air and you're looking through that window and you're looking down and you can't see people anymore, but you know they're there? You can't see the cars and the buildings anymore. All you see is the land.

And it's like God's looking down and my little bitty gift, you think, oh, that's so insignificant, but it's not. When you realize we do it for this reason. He said, for all things come from you. And from your hand we have given. We have given for you.

We're just a conduit. But what that does is it declares a good, righteous, and loving God to a lost and a dying world. Your generosity speaks volumes. And your lack of generosity reveals a lot of other things. How do we live knowing that when we give generously, number one, we'll never outgive God.

And we just get to be a mouthpiece and a medium through which God gets to express His grace and love. Can I tell you something? I've talked to a lot of people who are committed to To the discipline of giving in worship. To the tithe. And none of them have ever said they were mad or that they did it.

That somehow when they got older, like, man, I wish I'd have never done that. Everyone I've ever talked to that was committed to giving in worship and tithe. They never regretted it. Now, if somebody in this room today, you used to tithe and you're like, man, I hated that stuff.

I don't know. I just— I've never heard that. But here's what I've heard. I've heard people tell me, well, I committed to the tithe and my tires lasted longer. My kids didn't get sick.

My shoes didn't wear out. Like, God may not just like dump a $500 check in your lap. Here's what I know. Would you start giving if you made $100 more next week? Or $200?

Like, what's that magic number that would cause you to then all of a sudden start giving? Giving has nothing to do with the amount in your checkbook. It has to do with your heart. Generosity reveals the condition of your heart. If you give or if you don't give.

Take a moment and turn over with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Paul is writing to them and reminding them, hey guys, listen. You made a promise. You said you were going to take up some money. To help the Macedonians.

And he's like, I need to remind you of that. They weren't giving it to Paul. Paul was going to make sure it got to them. And he begins to talk about it as being a bountiful gift. Do you know what that word is in the Greek?

It's the same word we get eulogy. Something that's highly exalted. Like he's going, look, this is praiseworthy to God. And then he begins to talk about how it's just like someone who sows and reaps. Verse 6, now I say this, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

In other words, what he's saying is, if you just give a little bit, don't expect a lot. If you give a little bit, expect a little bit. If you give a lot, it's faith. Expect a lot. Expect it to have a big impact.

And he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. Here's the key verse. Each one must do just as he's purposed in his heart. That's perfect tense. You and I make a decision.

Am I going to be generous? And if I'm going to be generous, then there's opportunities that then present itself for me to be generous. What will I do with those opportunities? Will I turn a blind eye?

Or will I say, Lord, what should I do? That helps us when we discern what's going on around us. But again, remember what he said? Don't judge or you'll be judged. Right?

He did say that. Don't condemn or you'll be condemned. A lot of times what hinders our giving is we look at an opportunity and go, you know what? They don't deserve that. Or, they'll never come back and help me.

Those are not criteria of why, how, and how you should choose to give. You should give as you've purposed in your heart. So I ask you today, do you have a heart that wants to give? Or as the passage keeps going, he says, not grudgingly or under compulsion. If you give out of guilt, stop giving out of guilt.

That's not helping you. That's not helping the cause. Like, you're giving grudgingly. What God wants you to be able to do is to cheerfully give. Cheerfully give.

Does that describe— does that mean it's not hard? It is hard. Like, if you're right now deciding, you know what? I've been thinking about tithing, but it's a big step. Yeah, it is.

To take 10%— well, do I give 10% on my gross or do I give it on my take-home? Like, what do I do?

Like, it doesn't matter if The heart is in the right place. When our heart opens up, I don't set a number. A tithe is just a standard. Faith giving opens it all up. That's when I can walk up and I can take the last 2 coins in my pocket and drop them in the treasury.

Why? Because God owns everything and He's given way beyond. I can ever imagine.

Malachi addresses this idea. Because if my generosity reveals the condition of my heart, my lack of generosity reveals the opposite. Listen to what he says. Will a man rob God? Can you really rob God?

Like if somebody came up here and took my cell phone, it's still under God's sovereignty, right? It didn't go anywhere. It still belongs to God because God owns everything.

We rob God when we refuse generosity. He says, but you say, well, how have we robbed you in this specific way? He says, in tithes and offerings. He says, you are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me. The whole nation is robbing me.

Why? Because they were not being generous. They closed their heart and refused to open it and let it be A conduit. So he says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. And test me now in this, says the Lord.

The only word— place I see where he says, test me. And see if I will not open up the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Packing it in the sack. Smacking it down. Filling up all that space so that it overflows.

And who is the overflow for? It's not for my savings account.

Are you following? It's the overflow is what I give out. So when Jesus was making the contrast between the rich people dropping in large sums of money and the widow who was dropping in 2 coins, it was different.

They were giving out of their surplus. Their leftover. It didn't require any sacrifice and dependence on their part. But when the lady put her 2 coins in, it required absolute dependence.

Folks, I'm telling you. Test God and see what it will do for your faith when you decide, I don't care. The first thing that comes out of my bills this month will be the giving. Not, let me pay my bills and see what I have left over. Because when we do that, we miss out.

Why? We need to learn to trust God to provide. All that we need in order to forgive. To give. He goes on down in that passage and says, and God is able to make all grace abound to you.

Not all money. He said all grace. Grace is the motivating factor that will help us to want to go and sow abundantly. Not withhold or say, nah, I can't do it over there because that person doesn't deserve it. Or that person— man, I want to give to somebody who's going to help me go up the ladder in my career.

You see how self-focused that is? And God is just saying, look, give. He says, as it's written, he scattered abroad, he gave to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Our giving is a means by which the world will see our generosity.

And so you may say, well, you know what? I don't give because I don't agree with the way the church gives money. Well, you're not giving it to the church. You're giving it to the Lord. And I might say, in all the churches I've ever been in, we have some great layers of accountability.

Wasting the monies that you gave. But let me speak to the next generation. The reason our church has been able to do some of the things that it's done is because years ago other people were faithful in their giving. In times where it was that they were trying to decide which bills do we pay because we didn't bring in enough money this week. Fred, you experienced some of those years when you were here.

And people gave. Even through COVID, people gave and they gave and they gave. And there were men and women that That were smart with that money and they invested it. And our church is in a good place. And that's great.

There's going to come a time we may have a Job experience where we don't have that money. And what I'm seeing more and more in culture is the lack of the discipline of giving. The next generation isn't picking that up. Why is that a problem? Because the generation after that isn't going to learn the value and the discipline of giving and the blessing that comes to give.

Parents, if you have kids. Let them see you give. Do you know as a church we tithe? We give 10% to the cooperative program. And if you take and you add up what we give out to local ministries and missionaries and all the other things, it goes well over 25% of what you give to this church goes right back out the door.

We're not hoarding it up. We don't want God to show up and go, well, your bank account looked pretty good.

What I want to do is impact the 26,000 people in Stephens County with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he said, as you bring your tithe into the storehouse, there will always be meat in my house. Is that what he said? Because he's promised to provide all we need to give. But then the last point.

He promised to sustain the giver. I mean, it's God's plan, right? He wants to give through us and be generous through us. Then it would make sense that he would sustain the giver. But it's not always with a monetary thing.

It's God's doing things in your life you may not realize. And what greater thing than to realize, man, someone's life is different and saved and changed. And it may not have been my dollar. I don't know. Paul had to tell the Corinthians, look, Apollos came and planted seeds among you.

And I came and watered. But God gave the increase. We have to trust that God is at work. He's always at work. He says in verse 10, now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

What if you tested God today?

What if you tested God today? How does that start? Well, it starts with this first circle. How would I just be generous with the people that are around me? How would I be generous in the discipline of giving?

In the tithe? In the offering? And then go beyond that and just say, how could I bless even beyond that? If God's been good to you. Let's be good to others.

If the world knows how to love and to do good and to lend, shouldn't the people of God go even beyond that? When we consider regular giving, we must prioritize the motivation of grace and faith. We give out of obedience because we trust God to provide. See, in the first letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians in chapter 16, he told them, Hey, each week take it up. That's why we practice that in churches today.

We have boxes in the back. You have QR codes on your study guide to give you opportunities and a medium to give in the discipline of bringing it to the storehouse. But how is God opening your heart to be generous in every area of your life? And it's not a rule. It's not a law.

Because Abraham gave. The tithe to Melchizedek before the law ever existed. And before 15:6 when it said that he believed God and it was credited as righteousness. The rich young ruler missed God when Jesus said, if you want eternal life, go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. And he walked away from it.

Contrast. The next chapter we meet Zacchaeus. He meets Jesus. Jesus comes to his house. And he says, I want to give to the poor.

We're about to come up on Christmas, right? What happened immediately after the Grinch's heart grew 3 sizes?

He gave. He gave it all back. Did he not? When Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol was visited by the 3 angels and he woke up the next day full of joy. What was the first thing he did?

He found ways to give. If the world gets it, why don't we? The command is clear. He's called us. He's called us to give.

So Jesus is standing there, sitting there. He's watching them give. And I kind of wonder If time slowed down as the widow walked up. She wasn't like going, hey, look at me. Look at me.

I'm here. I got 2 coins. She wasn't parading around. She didn't have her I give all the time t-shirt on.

And I wonder if the sound of that coin. Clink. Clink.

Was like bells in the ear of Jesus. As he sat there and watched her obedience. As she gave everything she had. Do y'all know why we stopped making pennies in America? Because it costs 3 and 2/3 cents to make a penny.

That's why they stopped making them. Did y'all know that? That's why they stopped. That's why they're running out of pennies now.

If you went home today and all you had was a penny in your account, you'd freak out.

But not if you tap into these truths. That everything belongs to God. God gives generously. My generosity is a revelation of my heart. And he will provide for me to give.

And he will sustain and bless the giver. So this morning I want to challenge you as we go into this time of decision and prayer. Like, what is keeping you from being generous? Are you— did something hurt you in your past? Did somebody disappoint you?

What is it? Are you afraid? Is your money in your bank accounts your security blanket? Because today God may be calling you to lay that thing down, Linus, and lean on the Lord. Number 2, are you depending on yourself in a prideful way that you are the one who provides for yourself.

Job said, the Lord gives and what? And he takes away. Could be that God may be leading you in a season where he's taking away, not to be mean to you or to punish you, but for you to turn your eyes back to him and say, no, he's the supplier of all my needs and my God will supply all my needs. According to His riches in glory. Are you thankful today?

If you came in here today and you're like, I just don't have anything to be thankful for. Would you sit in a moment of prayer as we sing and say, God, open my eyes and let me see the blessings You've given in my life. Thank You for pastors who will preach the truth. There you go. I gave you one.

And how is God calling you to start giving or increasing giving in your worship?

Danny Akin said this, in light of God's indescribable gift of his Son Jesus Christ, it's hard to imagine doing anything less. God gave all. He gave his best. Why don't we? Father, as you speak to hearts today, Lord, this is a scary subject.

This, this takes a little sacrifice and a little uncomfortability. But just because it's uncomfortable doesn't mean it's wrong. And I pray, Father, that You speak. That You lead. That You direct.

That You guide. And open up our hearts. That we would be people of generosity. And we thank You because You've already been generous to us. In Jesus' name.

Amen.