Joy in Generosity

Cal Jernigan February 06, 2022

[00:00:00] Well, good morning, everyone. And welcome. Welcome, welcome. Welcome to you on all of our sites. We'll come to you online, wherever you are. Hey, do I understand? We have some of our students in here today in this service. Are you in here? There? I hear them. I see them. All right. Hey, great to have you a special welcome to you guys. Hey, before I get to the message, I want to tell you about some of this really cool that's coming up, that some of you are going to thoroughly dig. All right. And you'll have to decide that this is you. So every summer we host what's called the leadership. And it's an event that goes on all over the world. And central is actually one of the largest sites in the world. Uh, thousands of people come and we experienced this leadership training event together. And it's put on by the global leadership network and we're partners with them in ministry. And the reason I'm telling you all that is they contacted us and they said, Hey, we want to do a special event, a kind of like a, a morning intensive on. And we were going to broadcast this around the country, but we [00:01:00] want to know, is there any way we could do that on your Gilbert campus? Yeah, it's only the second time it's been done in any other church, but we want to do it in your church if you'd be willing. So on February 24th, which is a Thursday morning from eight 30 to 1130 on this campus right here, I'm on the Gilbert campus. Um, we're going to host this now. Here's the. Because of this arrangement, we were able to get 350 seats for you and there's no cost. It was the agreement we made with them. It just, as long as our people can benefit from it. So here's the deal. If this interests you and you want to be a part of this going to be in the lot, you live studio audience, there is your Oprah moment right here. Okay. If that, if that turns your crank. Go online and sign up first 350 people are going to get to be a part of this. So I, that, that interests you. That's awesome. All right, so here's what we're going to get going here and I'm going to move fast. So I need you [00:02:00] to take your Bible open to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18 at we're in a series. We started this a couple of weeks. It's about our relationship with money and our relationship with God. And if you don't understand this yet, your relationship with God affects your relationship with money. Your relationship with money affects your relationship with God. So it's a series called in God we trust in which we're trying to get this thing sorted out. So while you're finding Matthew 18, let me share with you something Jesus said, which will ring a bell. You go, oh, I've, I've heard this before. Not through seven, 12 says this. So in everything do to others, what you would have them do to. For this sums up the law and the prophets, the entire old Testament. If you get it all down, what it comes down to is love others. Like you love yourself. Now we know that as a golden rule, but that's Jesus's words. That's what he said. All right. So just do for others. What you'd expect others to do for you now, let's go to Matthew eight. And we're going to read a segment in which [00:03:00] Jesus has asked a question, and then he tells a story. He's asked a question, and then he tells a story. The story is called the parable. We've talked about parables before, so I want to just work our way through this. So if you'll allow me, I'm going to just read a segment. I'll stop. Make sure we're all tracking what's happening and we'll go on. So it starts in 21, it says this. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins? Everybody gets that. And we get it up to seven times and Jesus answered. I tell you not seven times, but 77 times. And then Jesus said, therefore, okay. Therefore it comes to the story that kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10,000 bags of gold was. Since he was not able to pay the master over to the he and his wife and his children and all that. He had be [00:04:00] sold to repay the debt. Okay. There's a whole lot to take in, but let's just assume to make sure we get it. Okay. Thing you need to understand. This is about the king, some servants and the values of the king. All right. That's what, this is about the idea here. That the servant owed the king 10,000 bags of gold. Now you got to stop here because you need to understand what Jesus is saying. This that is so astronomical. It is. So it is greater than the U S you get it. It's. And there is no way this guy can pay this back. That's what you need to understand. Now, a couple of weeks ago, I told you the parable of what's called the parable of the talents, landowners going away. He entrusts one servant with 10 bags of gold, one with five, one with one. And we talked about what's the value of a bag of gold that we said it doesn't matter all time, all across time. If you can get your hands on a bag of gold, one bag of gold, you know, you've got something valuable in your [00:05:00] hands, whatever. This guy owes 10,000 bags of gold and it's so far beyond. So the idea is not, you're going to put your wife and kids in debtors, prison, sell all your stuff and pay it back. You thousand lifetimes, you're not going to pay this back. It's that big? So at this. The the, the servant at this, the servant fell on his knees before him be patient with me. He begged and I will pay back everything. The servant's master took pity on him and canceled the debt and let him go. What he's offering is it's. How, how do you think is your brain around this? It's it's possible. You're going to just let it go. I mean, how many lifetimes. How can this guy be so gracious? It's about the values of a king and a values of a kingdom, but when that servant [00:06:00] went out. Okay. So just imagine you just went before the king, he just released, you have this incredible that your family is safe, but your stuff is still yours. You have, what spirit would you have in your head? All right. Local happens. But when the, when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him, pay back what you owe me. He demanded. Why, how, how does he pay? Uh, you owe me $2 and 57 cents. Pay it back. Now. Now watch his fellow servant fell to his knees and he begged him be patient with me and I'll pay it back. Just give me some time. Give me a chance here. These words sound. They should have, because there were the exact words this guy said to the king, please give me a chance. But he refused. Instead, he went off and have the men [00:07:00] thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. And when the others servant salt, what had happened, they were outraged and they went and told their master everything that had happened. What, what happened? He refused to treat others like he'd been treated. And when they found out what he was doing and went back to the king, then the master called the servant in you wicked servant. He said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you in anger, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all that. How's that going to happen? How long is that going to take? Never going to happen. This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart. Okay. That was a powerful story. Jesus. That's kind of like, woo. It's kind [00:08:00] of heavy, kind of hard to take all that in now. Let's just break it down and they go, okay. So this is a, this is a story about forgiveness. It is certainly a story about. And how many times should I forgive up to seven times? And Jesus says, no, no, let me just say something about the seven times offer. That was, let me say what Peter was expecting. He, seven is the number of perfection. It's the number of completion. It's seven days of creation, seven days a week. It's the number seven in the Bible. So, so what Peter was expecting, what's what he said up to seven times. He was thinking, I believe that Jesus was going to go Peter, Peter, Peter. I'm proud of you, man. You have come so far. I remember the day when you would have said only three and he offering seven Peter that you're so magnanimous, your has so increased, grown so much, Peter I'm. So here's a gold star where it all week long, proudly and Jesus instead [00:09:00] goes. Uh, your translation. When I read, it said 77 times, some of your translations say 70 times, seven times, the point is not the number. The point is how much should you forgive far beyond anything you think is generous way beyond. That is what you ought to forgive more than you can ever imagine. Just like the king forgave that better now. Is it only about forgiveness. And I want to tell you, no, this is not a parable. Just about forget it is a parable about forgiveness, but it is about something more. It's about the subject of generosity. It's about generosity. I want to be really clear. It's about generosity. The generosity of God. Let me be even more clear. It's about the kind of generosity our God pours out upon. Let me be most clear by saying it's the kind of generosity our king who poured out [00:10:00] upon us, expects us to pour out upon other people. That's what this is about. It's about a king. It's about a, subject's about a values. Why would the king forgive this man? So generously, why would he, why would Jesus tell us his story? It's very simple folks because this is what he expects of us. If we're kingdom. This is what he wants. Should shouldn't you have done for others? What I've done for you? That's what he said that man, come on, come on. So in everything do to others, what you would have them do to you for this sums up the law and the profits. So I want to talk to you for a few moments about generosity, unless we're not certain what generosity actually means. Let me give you the definition, a readiness or liberality in giving a willingness to share with others. Now, I don't know your story. As you would tell your story, who you would say showed extreme generosity to you. My guess is every one of us, every one of you, [00:11:00] every one of you you've experienced generosity. So more somehow, and there are people that have marked your life by being so gracious to you. And I cannot help, but think, and I apologize if you're a long time person at central, you've heard me tell the story, but I cannot not tell this story when I think about this, because when I think about who shaped. I got to go back to this one time that when I was a college student, let me just quickly give it to you. Okay. So I grew up without a dad. I grew up with a single mom who did everything she could do, but when I became a believer, I was a senior in high school and she did not like that decision. Didn't agree with it at all. And. I was going to go to ASU to go into architecture slash engineering. One of those fields, that's the way my brain's wired. And so that's where I was going. When I became a believer, I wanted to take a detour. I wanted to go to a Bible college, get a foundation for my life [00:12:00] about the Bible. And so I made a decision to go to what's now hope international university in Southern California. And I wanted to get, I was going to go for a year and my mom who. Different value system. She said, absolutely not. And it made it very, very clear that not only was, I believe he can Jesus, a fool for doing that. But if I would waste my time on this, she would not waste her money. And she said she had set up a little bit aside, but it's not a dime. So I was in a crisis and I had to make a decision. And so I made the decision that I felt like God wanted me to go to this Bible college. And I'm going to do everything I can do. So I applied for every scholarship I could apply for apply for every grant I could apply for, apply for every loan I could apply for it. And I got a job, literally the day I hit the college and I was going to find a way to make it work, and I'm not going to get any help from my family. I got that. So about two weeks into this or a week or [00:13:00] something, I don't know. I got a note that I needed to go visit the business office. And so I went to the business office and I sat across a very nice lady who was very. But she was explaining to me the reality of my situation. She said, can we certainly want you to be here, but we need you to understand that your resources don't align with the actual expense. What's she saying to me, you don't have enough to go here. And so she was explaining to me that I needed to come up with some additional resource and I looked at her and I said, ma'am, I have no additional. And she said, well, you might. And I said, I turned over every rock on this. I know how to turn over. I don't have any additional resources. And she said, why don't you take the weekend and pray about it? It was a Friday afternoon. As I recall. I said, I'll do that, but I guarantee you, I don't have any additional resources, just pray about it. So I walked out of the business office as I was distraught because. There is nowhere. This money's going to come from. I don't have any additional resource. [00:14:00] So at the dorm, there's a pool. And then it's a square pool and there's lawn chairs all the way around the pool. And so I go to one section, there's nobody out there and I go and I sit in a lunch here. I'm just all by myself, having straight from the business office, to the pool in this fog. And I just sit down there and I'm just like staring up and going, God. I have no idea what you're doing this, I have, I'm doing everything. I know how to, I don't have any additional reasons. You know that, I know that God is just, what do I do? And I'm playing it out in my head. How going to move back home. And I'm going to all of this out of nowhere. This is all true. Out of nowhere. Some lady sits down next to me and I look at her. I don't know who she is from anyone. I've never seen this lady in my life. And she looks over at me and says something like this. She says, you look. Yeah, she said, what's going on? And I'm looking at her going, look, I don't know you. And this had kind of personal and private and I'm not interested in and she would not [00:15:00] let up. And she just kept asking me, come on to tell me what's going on. I can see it on your face. Tell me so half an hour later, she's fully informed of the plight of my life. And I explained it to her and she says, you should pray. So anyway, I go in on Monday morning and I go in and I go to the same lady from behind the desk. I said, look, I spent all weekend praying about this. I just need you to understand. I don't have any additional resources. I can't, I'm going to drop out. So just tell me what do I do now? And she looks at me and she's just, she goes, you're good. I go, no, I'm the guy that was on Friday that you, she goes. And I'm totally confused. Totally confused. I go, what do you mean? I'm good. She goes, it's covered. Don't worry about it. Here's what I can tell you now from that point about two or a week or two into college to the end of my graduation [00:16:00] of undergrads studies, that lady and her husband, Lois and Harold Rayburn from Los Alamos, New Mexico picked up the bottom line of anything I couldn't. They put me through college. Nothing you need to understand. I didn't know that was them. Cause I'm not that sharp to figure that out. I don't know. I don't know what is going on. That's a lady keeps going. You're good. Whatever was short. And so I don't realize until I think I'm a junior, maybe a senior that they're the ones who are doing this, that why that matters is I kept trying everything I could do to get other resources. I was going to go for one year and then I was decided I was going to go for two years cause I really dug it. And then my second year they said, we've got this program that if you will become a student recruiter at camps, we'll underwrite a bunch of your tuition. So it's like an additional scholar. [00:17:00] And so I apply hoping there's a way. And I, I got it. I got the position and I was so excited because I was gonna, I was gonna actually work for the summer. It was going to pay a huge amount of the debt for my next, my junior year, which I'm going back. And, and so I get the job and I'm so stoked. And then the guy that's in charge of very dear man who I, to this day love, he sat me down and he said, how can we just talk now? What I'm about to tell you, I am so embarrassed about. I so don't want to tell you this, but I'm not being true. If I don't tell you this, they said, Cal, there's a problem. And I said, what's a problem. They said your clothes. I said, my clothes. They said, yeah, your clothes are not appropriate for the job that you're going to take on. Then I looked down at my page, blue Jean overalls that I'm wearing with holes in hands. I go, what's wrong with [00:18:00] these? And they said, it's just not appropriate. And they, this guy said to me, he goes, how you're going to need to get some new clothes. And I remember looking at him and go in gym. How am I going to do that? I don't have any money. And he said, pray about it is I'm a sophomore now pray about it. Yeah. Just pray about it. Okay. Now, as God is my witness, what I'm about to tell you is true as God is my. My senior pastor from Scottsdale Christian Church in Southern California shows up on campus a day or two later, he pulls me aside, puts his arm around me, Dee Schafer, D and Phyllis Shafer. He puts his arm around me and he says to me, he goes, this is w as I remember, he said, Cal, he goes, you probably don't know this, but Dee and I are Phyllis and I, excuse me, Phyllis and I have never been able to have. And, [00:19:00] uh, it would mean the world to us. If we could just kind of take you in as a son, is there any way you would give us the thrill of being parents and taking you shopping to get you some clothes? God is my witness. God is my witness. So Dee to help you out. Do you, because I want you to know God loves you. The no, I was blown away. So D and Phyllis took me shopping and I got new clothes. Why am I telling you that? I'm telling you that for you to understand two things. If, if I didn't get help financially to go to college, there'd be no college for me. If I didn't get help with those clothes, I would not have been. Let me tell you why that's going to matter in just a moment. Why would people [00:20:00] do this? Philippians two, three, and four says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. In other words, get your mind off yourself, put your mind on the need of others. You see what I just, and again, this might not mean anything to you, but I need you to. If Harold and Louis Rayburn wouldn't have been there that day by the pool. I wouldn't be here this day in front of you. You need to understand that. And if the Philips Schaffer hadn't bought me clothes, I wouldn't have been a recruiter at camp, which is where I met my wife, Lisa, which means I'd have never met her, which means we'd never have had the two kids that we had, which means we wouldn't have the grandkids we have, which means we wouldn't have the life that I now. Two separate times with two people stepping forward [00:21:00] and going, we can make a difference. Where would I be in my life? Let me just drop the big idea of this message on you right now. The joy of being blessed is getting to bless in blessing others, getting to bless others because you have resource to bless others. That's the. You see generosity, this where you never think of it this way. I think God does. Generosity is a gift to the giver greater than the gift to the receiver. It does more for you than it could ever do for anybody else. And every time in your life right now, you choose to be generous with somebody you're retelling the story of your generosity, what you experienced, and if you find it very hard to be. I got to ask you, do you understand what God's doing for you? If you don't have anything that you can relate to with somebody who'd been so kind, do you know what God's done [00:22:00] too? So two, two critical questions here. How has your life? This is not rhetorical. This is real. How has your life been blessed by God's generosity? How has your life been blessed by God's generosity? If you're stumped and you go, I don't know. Let me turn your attention to the scripture. Ephesians one, three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You know how generous God's been to you? Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is. Uh, take just a few verses down below that in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us, God has been so incredibly gracious to be so forgiving of your debt, [00:23:00] that he's enriched you. And if you want to go to heaven and you want to be saved, God did his part. For you, every one of us he's done his part, which leads to a second question is a little goofy, the way it's worded. I didn't know how to word it better than this. So forgive me. So how has your life been blessed by God's generosity? And then what do you suppose he's expecting that to have done to you see the joy of being blessed as in blessing others? What do you think he's blessed you so richly for what purpose? Now, let me just take a di diversion for a second. Let's just talk about the arch enemy of generosity, which all of us are dealing with the arch enemy of generosity and that's self-centeredness yours and mine. A couple of weeks ago. I talked about the fact that when we were [00:24:00] born, one of the very first words that we learned was my. Remember mine and mine is, is when you watch your fingers around something, you pull it tight to your chest yet, turn it away from you. And you get that demonic voice mine. And you did when you were a kid, you have that. And then you took a Sharpie out and you learn how to write your name on everything. And remember what we said, my means not yours. My means not yours. Which can make us incredibly self-centered people. So I want to ask you a question. Who's your favorite self-centered person in your life? Who's your favorite of all the selfish people? You know, who's your favorite selfish person. If you've got this ridiculous question, I don't like selfish people. No kidding. No kidding. None of us like selfish people and yet, and yet the truth of the matter is there's [00:25:00] one selfish person. You do. You despise self-centered as people self-centeredness or selfishness and others, but you defend it in this one person. Who's your favorite selfish person. You, you, and I'm my favorite selfish person. See, I will defend my own self-centeredness I despise it. When I see you act like I'm acting, but I'll defend it when I'm acting that way. It's just part of this. So what generosity does with this, there's a current running through the cord to keep yourself centered, to keep you all about you. Generosity breaks the circuit, it pulls the plug apart. It stops the flow of self-centeredness and it allows you to become somebody different. See, I'm not going to care for myself and I need something to snap me out of it. And you as well, need something to snap. God's done his [00:26:00] part. Have I done my part? Can I show you something that I find challenging as a pastor? You know, scripture tells pastors, teach your people to be generous. What w why do we have to teach people to be generous? Because there's nothing natural about what God's calling you to become natural is be about you be self-centered it's human nature. And let me show you. So Paul teaching a young pastor to preach, he said, command those who are rich in this present world, they will help that one because I'm not rich in this present world. I don't have time to park your folks, but we're the richest people on the planet. All right. Just so we're clear command. Those who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant or to put their hope in. Which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment, [00:27:00] command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share, teach them Timothy, teach them in this way. They will lay up treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life. That is truly. And then put it through you this way. Generosity is the key that unlocks the door behind what you will find the life, which is truly lysed. And the lesson has to be taught. Parents got to teach this to your kids. You got to teach it, you got to learn it. And then you've got to teach it. And. When I look at this, I go, oh God, my mom and dad know, but the Rayburns they taught me and shapers. They taught me, see, generosity is not defined by what you have or don't have [00:28:00] generosity is defined by your heart and what you're willing to do on behalf of somebody else. It's a choice we have to make. So I want to read you one last. Okay, second Corinthians nine, 10 and 11. So SIS now watch carefully. All right. This is a promise. Now he who supplies, seed to the soar and bread for food will be, God will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in Thanksgiving to God. I don't know if you saw it, but I want to show it to you. Okay. I want to see you guys see there's four things that happened in that passage. Number one, that God will supply God will supply. This is where we started [00:29:00] two weeks ago. God will supply everything you need. God's already given you what you're doing with it is. But God's watching because none of your stuff that you got your name written on it, it's yours. It's his foot, put it in your hands. God will supply. You will be enriched. You will be enriched. God will supply. You'll be enriched so that you can be generous so that God will be praised. It begins with him. And it ends with him. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's not about us. It's about. So God's gonna put stuff in your hands. You're going to be enriched so you can be generous so God can get the glory for that. What should someone who's been treated so well as you've been treated do about it? Well, the joy of being blessed, isn't blessing others. Now from the time I started the series two weeks ago, some of you have [00:30:00] already reached to the concurrent. That all this is about is the church wanting more money? You think that every time the church talks about money, that the goal, the motive is to get money out of you, to us. And you know, there's a cynicism here. I get it. You're jaded. I get it. Okay. You're suspicious. I get it. So I just thought, let's just get this out of the way. So you, you thought this is all about taking an offering, so right now I'm going to put it to rest. We're going to take. Just so we can just deal with it. We're going to take an offering. So I need some ushers to come forward because we're going to, we're going to take an offering right now and what's going to happen is that these, these trays are going to go down. These we're going to pass the plate. All right, we're going to pass a plate and just get it going, guys. Just get it going. But here's what I need you to do. I want you to put nothing in this. We're going to take an offering, which means in that [00:31:00] offering the satchel, there is an envelope. I want you to take an envelope out of the, take an offering, take it. Don't open it, just take it. And we're going, gonna, we're gonna, we're going to do something here in just a minute. So let's just get out of the way we took an offering. Yes. You knew it. We just did it. We're taking an offering. Now I want to explain something to you about our church that you might or might not understand. Okay. And this might be like totally new to you, but one of the things churches are traditionally known for is passing the plate. And if you've gone to church, you've grown up in church, you know, that that's how the church does business. It takes an offering. All right. And so about five years ago, Uh, basically approached the board of our church and we said, can we stop doing that? What do you mean? Can we stop passing the plate in our church? And there's immediately there. [00:32:00] Whoa, what would happen if we stop passing the plate? And I said, well, I think, I don't know if we made giving intentional people who are intentionally wanting to give, would give, and those who don't want to give are not going to be. Weird about coming to church. I think this whole idea of passing a plate by the way is one of the most repulsive things to people who don't go to church. And I think it turns them off and makes them not hear anything else in a message. So my whole thought was, why don't we just stop doing that? And let's make it hard to give. Let's make it till you have to want to give, to give. And that's what we've done. You maybe didn't even know. We basically say, look, if you want to give you, get online, you can give online. We have boxes put in on all of our campuses. So people, if you want to walk out, nobody's going to ask you if you want to put an offering in the offering. That's how you do it. In other words, I don't like what anyone puts something in my [00:33:00] face and says, you want to give, so we stopped doing that because this is not about getting your money. This is absolutely not about that at all. We're taking an offering. No, I'm going to have to explain what's going on because I'm out of time and not all of you have the envelope yet. It'll keep going. Okay. So again, wherever you are, I'm not sure what's happening in the house you're in. And by the way, if you're online, I wish you were here. I just wish you were here because what I want to ask the people to do who have an envelope in your hand, just if you don't, you're not going to miss out. It'll come. I want you to open the. Once you're done. You took an offering today. Let's take a moment. I'll wait for you to open. You can hear the sound just[00:34:00] so what you have in this. It's somewhere and I don't know the bottom end. I don't know if it's the, I don't, I don't know. I don't know if it's $20 or I don't know where the low end is. I know that upper end is a hundred dollars. You got either 20 to $100. Now, some denomination of that, and again, online, can't get it to you. All right. Uh, why did what's happening here? So God will supply. So you will be enriched so you can be generous and God can be glorified. So what we're doing is at Christmas, and at other occasions, we take up a benevolent offering an offering to help people. So what we're doing right now is we're commissioning you [00:35:00] to be the church, the people. So this is in your envelope. Seed money to help, you know, how God works, how he blessed us to bless. So what I want to ask you to do is number one, absolutely 100%. Do not put this back in an offering to the church, do not do that. Now this week, next week, the following week, this year, next year ever not ask asking for the money back, we're asking you to do is be a blessing to somebody. We're asking you to be the church, be the hands and the feet. Okay. This was money given to us as a church to bless people. I'm recruiting you are y'all my team. I just want you to go out. What do you want me to do with it? Whatever you see, whatever you, whatever you, since God's leading you to do, I don't know. It might be help somebody with their college expense. I don't know. It might be buying clothes. It might be helping out a food server. It might be helping a homeless person. It might be buying a [00:36:00] meal for somebody to, I don't know. It's your call? It's your call. But here's the deal. See if we don't start with an understanding, well, I don't have anything are, we're never going to start. So what we're making sure this weekend is is you have something, you have something, just go bless somebody with it and just see what God does in you and the joy you find in being a blessing to somebody else. And we'll just see how it goes. All right, let me pray. And then on each campus, our campus pastors are going to come up and explain a couple of things. So God, thank you for the generosity of the shirts to give this money to start with. We wouldn't have it. If people didn't give towards the benevolent fund to help people. So now we're commissioning our church to go help people. And instead of us deciding where this goes, you helped them to decide, and God just do something incredible in each of their lives open there. To the joy of being [00:37:00] blessed to bless and thank you for what you've done in our individual stories. And then just corporately how you have lavished your grace and forgiveness upon us. You're so generous to us. God, may we catch the value that you were trying to teach us in this parable? And I pray for this analysis in Jesus name and all God's people said, amen. Bless you.

Joy in Generosity

by Cal Jernigan • February 06, 2022

Generosity is in God’s heart. He gave us the most generous gift in Jesus’ life. Why then is generosity so hard to talk about? Think of your favorite selfish person. Can’t do it? That’s because generosity is something we value in others but would rather not do ourselves. Join Pastor Cal Jernigan as he talks about how generosity can bring true joy to your life.

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