This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Avalon Park, Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar driving directions and more audio recordings. If you have your bobbles, go ahead and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. We're going to be looking at verses 6 through 12. We'll read that in a few minutes. But we are, as I've already mentioned, in our stewardship series. And last week we looked at the fact that God is the giver of all things. And he has given everything that we have. This week we're going to be looking at particularly about God having given us all things. What is the reason? Why has he blessed us with things? Why has he blessed us with resources? And getting just as a reminder, we're not just talking about financial resources. Although that's a very important one, and it's a very good indicator. The scriptures tell us even where our heart is. Jesus is the one that says in Matthew 6. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So it's a very key element for us to be able to guard that. But we're also talking about other things that God blesses us with, things like time, and how we spend our time and the resources of that. Things like your possessions, and how you think through that, and how you apply that, and how do you use that. Are you a steward of your possessions, and things like your talents and your abilities. Each person here has a different mixture of talents and abilities, and nobody hears without one. And even we know very specifically that if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit and you're given spiritual gifts, abilities to contribute and to serve God and glorify Him through specific ways. So we're thinking about the whole broad areas of stewardship of all those resources. But we're going to obviously be talking and looking at some of the specific ways that is reflected itself in things like our financial resources. Living in this country, the wealthiest country on the planet, the wealthiest country by the way of all time that we live in here in comparison to the world around us. This is a very important topic. It's one that we all face. It's one that you can see whether you're watching CNN or whatever your news source is where people will continue to say it's the economy. As big as other issues are going around, you will constantly hear people come back and say their biggest concern or one of them is the economy, is finances, and is an ultimately an attitude and a decision of stewardship. Well, I'm not sure how many of you have ever saw the movie, The Perfect Storm, that came out sometime back, but of course before it was a movie, as many movies are, it was once a book. But Sebastian Junger is the author of The Perfect Storm as well as another best-selling book called The Death of Belmont. But long before he became a famous writer, however, he decided in his journey of life to go on a hitchhiking trip across the country, figured it would be a good chance for him to get some experiences, to see the world in a very down-to-earth raw kind of way. Now, as he was doing that, he came across through when he was actually in Zalette, Wyoming, and during the aftermath of an actual blizzard that was going on there, he caught himself during a very difficult time. Let me pick it up and let him read from his own words and his own journal in this process. He writes, After two or three hours, I saw a man working his way toward me along the on-ramp from town. He wore filthy canvas overalls and carried a black lunchbox. And as he got closer, I could see that his hair was matted in a way that occurs only after months on the skids. I put my hand on the pepper spray in my pocket and I turned to face him. You've been out here long, he asked. I nodded. Where you headed, California, I said. Warm out there? Yup. You got enough food. Well, I thought about this. Clearly he didn't have any. And if I admitted that I did, he'd probably ask for some. That in itself wasn't a problem, but it would mean opening my backpack and revealing my obviously expensive camping gear that I had. I felt alone and exposed and right for pillage, and I just didn't want to do that. 20 years later, I still remember my answer. I got some cheese. You won't make it to California with just a little cheese, he said. You'll starve. At first, I didn't understand what he was saying exactly. I kept my hand on the pepper spray. Believe me, he said, I know. Listen, I'm living in a car back in town. And every day I walk out to the mine to see if they need me. Today they don't. So I won't be needing this lunch of mine. I began to sag with understanding. In his world, whatever you have in your bag is all you've got. And he knew a little cheese would never get me to California. I'm fine. Really, I said, I don't need your lunch. He shook his head and opened his box. It was a typical church meal, a baloney sandwich, an apple, and a bag of chips. And I kept protesting, but he wouldn't hear of it. I finally took his lunch and watched him walk back down the on-ramp toward town. I learned a lot of things in college, I thought, and I learned a lot of things in books on my own. I have learned things in Europe, in New Mexico, in my hometown in Belmont, Massachusetts. But I had to stand out there in that frozen piece of interstate to learn true generosity from a homeless man. I doubt many of us have had an experience quite like him. But what I want to propose is that there are opportunities for us to learn about generosity in ways maybe we don't expect. Thinking about questions we don't normally ask, and looking at a perspective from God's eyes that will really reveal not only what our view is of generosity, but where our heart is. So as we look at that here this morning, that's my prayer and that's my desire, is that we would have a revelation or even a deeper one than Sebastian did on that day. Let me read our text this morning from 2 Corinthians 9 verses 6-12. Here now the word of God. Remember this, a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give, and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure for God loves a person who gives cheerfully. And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need, and plenty left over to share with others. As the scriptures say, they share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer, and then bread to eat. In the same way He will provide and increase your resources, and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous, and when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. So two good things will result in this ministry of giving. The needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God. This is God's holy and inspired word. We pray with me one more time. Fathers, we come this morning as we seek to unpackage that. Father, we are desperate need. I'm in desperate need of your Holy Spirit to be our teacher, to be our guide, to be the one that leads us into truth as your word says you will. So Father, we invite your presence now to speak. God, we invite your Holy Spirit to come into the dark places of our hearts, into the closets of our hearts, to the places where we truly, our treasure is found, the things that we desire, the things that we treasure most. And God there will you reveal in our hearts truth. And God will you show us the great recipients that we have been up, the great generosity of the God who created us, and the God who sent his son here to earth for us. And God would you speak truth, and when you bring life, probably your word says that when your truth is proclaimed it will set people free. God set us free this morning, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, now as we look, and if you want to follow and take a long notes there, I invite you to do that. We're going to be looking at three aspects here this morning. The first one is going to be looking at is the problem. The problem, and then we'll go on and we'll look at the truth, and we'll look on, look off, look at number three, the test, but first looking at the problem. As I have thought about it here, and had a chance to prepare this week, I realize that there's a lot of different reasons out there that we think God has blessed us with things. Now we're here in church, and most of you probably would claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I think I can make the assumption to say that most people here, if not all of you would say yes, what we have, has been given to us by God. And of course, that was what been serving was all about last week, was a reminder of that. Everything we have has been given to us by God. But let me ask you to go a little bit deeper to look beneath and think why has God blessed you? What is the purpose for? Now I want to propose here under this identifying the problem that there's at least seven counterfeit reasons. We've heard the seven deadly sins. Well, let me tell you seven deadly counterfeit reasons that are dangerous, so we need to look at here this morning. Reason number one, we think often that God blesses us, or blesses us, has blessed you, so that you can be secure, so that you can be secure. The resources that God has given you, the possessions, the finances you have are there, and given by God, for the purpose of you being secure. However, Psalms 27 goes on and tells us, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God, was the reminder that Israel had. You see, the point here is not ultimately, yes, does God use those things to bring a level of security? Yes, he does. But if you make that the primary understanding, the primary reason of why God has blessed you and is giving you things is for you to be secure, then you are missing the primary reason, and you're substituting with something else, and then it becomes a counterfeit reason. And then the scripture goes on and say it becomes an idol, something that we've begun to worship rather than God himself. God is the one who gives you your security, not through the things that you have, and specifically not in the money that's in your bank account. Another counterfeit reason that you might encounter is, number two, God blesses you so that you can be happy, and we know that's been very much bought into in this society, in this day and age, in this country as well. But you see, Galatians 5.22 tells us that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, et cetera, et cetera. What do the scriptures tell us? No, the source of your joy, the source of your happiness is not supposed to be becoming through your possessing and your money. And don't get me wrong, those things can be helpful, and they certainly can bring a smile to your face as well. But God says, your ultimate joy is not found in that, but is found in His Holy Spirit who produces it. Who is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ? It comes from God Himself. Well, another counterfeit reason that we can look at and think about that is, number three, God blesses you so that you can be successful and comfortable. Well, again, similar to being secure, the idea of being secure here, that is not the reason why God has given you possessions, and it's specifically money. Jesus tells the parable on Luke 12, verses 16 through 21, I'll just read it for you. Jesus told him this parable, the ground of a certain rich man, produced a good crop. He thought to himself, what shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. Then he said, this is what I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy. Eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, you fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for Himself, but it's not rich towards God. See, Jesus makes the point very clear, but no, the things that God has given you are not for the purpose of you being successful or feeling successful, or for the purpose of you being comfortable and storing it up for yourself or down the road. In this particular case, this man's life would be demanded in that night, and we never know how many days we have here left on earth. But it is a counterfeit reason. A fourth counterfeit reason is this, God blesses you. So your personal dreams can be realized. Well, Psalm 37.4 says, delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Not your money, not your possessions. A counterfeit reason number five is that God blesses you as a reward for your hard work. Now in this country, in particular, who likes to pull itself up by its boot straps, that's a hard one for us to look at and to question, but yet the scriptures say very clearly something different. In fact, Jesus tells a parable of a man who owed a great debt and couldn't afford to pay it back in Matthew chapter 18. Remember, this man was the one who Jesus shares how his debt was so insurmountable even if he worked the rest of his life, he couldn't pay it back. But yet he comes and he pleases and he asks for mercy against the king and the king grants it to him. But then as soon as he has gotten out, as soon as he's been released, he goes and he finds the few that owe him a puny amount of money. And he has them thrown in the jail, the very single thing that he had, because they couldn't afford to pay him. So the king hears about it. And in verses 32 through 34, it says, the master called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said, I cancel all that your debt. I cancel all the debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I did on you and anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay back all that he owed. That hasn't blessed you as a reward of your hard work for you to do whatever you want but this man worked hard to find mercy and grace. To find his debts, cancel. But as soon as he found it, there was no changed heart as a result of it. And you see that clearly in his actions from that. A reason number six, counterfeit reason. God blesses you as a reward for your faith. God blesses you as a reward for your faith. And he might pause there and go, oh, wait a minute. Isn't that true? Doesn't God bless us here on earth with things as a reward of your faith? And that is true in a sense. And God does provide everything that we need. But let me tell you, Revelation 22-12, one of the last verses in the Bible says this. Gee, behold, I am coming soon. My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. Don't misunderstand that God's promises and his blessings on you, yes, are an expression of the reward that we have to be recipients of God's promises. But they're not meant to be anything more than a down payment here. They're not meant to be anything more than just the beginning of it. The ultimate reward they were supposed to be having from God is one that's in the new heavens and the new earth. It's one that's founded in the kingdom that's coming through Jesus Christ. It's not specifically or primarily for the one that's here on earth. Well, seventh counterfeit reason of why we're blessed is this. God blesses you so you can demonstrate your generosity. Matthew 6-2-4. Jesus speaking on the servant of the mount says this. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by men. I tell you the truth. They have received their reward and full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that you're giving maybe in secret. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. See, there's a real temptation. I even think about this being more the Hollywood answer. Hollywood is big on jumping in about times like in Haiti or things are going on in Pakistan. And things where there's great needs out there to step up to show their generosity to give towards others. But God encourages you to do kind of giving things in secret and in private. For two main reasons. One, it's not yours in the first place. It's God's. And when you do it as a way to ring attention to yourself and to glorify yourself, you really rob God of his glory. So as he goes on with this, we find that really even doing it as a way to demonstrate your generosity is a counterfeit way as well. Because it's supposed to be an expression not of yours, but of God's generosity. There is a different reason of why God has blessed you with the resources that you have and specifically money. Very different reason. And the problem is we can substitute counterfeit ones. One's that again are not necessarily non-reasons, but they're not the primary one. As we look at that here, that's where I want to look to for point number two, the truth. The problem is counterfeit reasons, but the truth is what we're looking at here and need to find here this morning. So you might remember a scene of this. They might know Veruca Salt. Veruca Salt was the one on the Willy Wonka movie who found a golden ticket. And in the midst of her excitement about that, that was the scene she was the child. If you've seen one of the versions of the movie, she was the child that had her dad own an entire factory. And everybody in the factory was doing nothing else, but opening up Willy Wonka chocolate bars the entire time. And of course, she was walking around monitoring the progress or the lack of the progress much of the time. So one finds the golden ticket. And her father who had promised her because of his love to give her and help her find this golden ticket. She runs up, takes it out of the worker's hand, and she holds it up and she cries out my ticket. It's my golden ticket. She is a great picture of somebody who was solely sold out on the gift and totally missed the giver behind it. Such a picture, an extreme picture, but nevertheless an accurate one. You see the blessing is not the reward according to the scriptures. God is the reward. And what little Veruca Salt represents here and reminds us of is the ability for us to mistake that so often, so easily. See gifts are supposed to be tokens of love from the one that loves us showing of their love for us. But when you miss the giver because of the gift, something terribly wrong has happened. If Christmas morning is fine with you to have all the gifts, but have nobody there that gave you the gifts, there's something wrong with your understanding of Christmas, isn't it?
Even if you get a gift from somebody who's out of town, hopefully you're prompted to want to write a thank you note or to pick up the phone and say thanks for that gift because the gift is simply a token of the love of the giver and their love for you and hopefully your reciprocated love for them. But what often happens here and the truth is that God blesses you so that you can be generous with His blessings and so that you can worship Him the giver. That's the truth. That's at the heart of it all here. Our response is to be one of generous, generous praise and worship to God for His gifts to us. And God tells us here that He's not given you extra in your life for you, but He's given you extra in your life for you to be a blessing to others. Let's look at some of the verses that mention that. Remember in verse 6 it starts off saying remember this a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. He goes on in verse 8 and God will generous who provide all that you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over why to share with others. As you freely receive you to be freely giving to those around you as you understand that it comes from the giver who loves you and has gone to the cross and his son to die for you. It empowers you to give freely to others of the same grace, the same undeserving favor you receive from God changes your heart to want to give it to others. And we're told to do it cheerfully not reluctantly looking for seven you must each aside in your heart how much to give and don't give your electorate reluctantly or in response to pressure for God loves a person who gives cheerfully in that not under compulsion not from guilt in the process. He goes on to talk about giving expectantly remember verse 6 said one who plants generously will get a generous crop. We're told that we are to give generously to others not just for the cheerful heart, but expectantly knowing that God just like he is blessed us will bless others through our generosity as well. Well, there's a story of a grad student named Keith. Keith was a part time grad student. He was trying to pay his way through school like so many students are. And as he was working in his part time job, he had an unexpected car repair that came up. The car repair was so significant it meant that he was not able to pay the full month rent that he owed at his apartment where he was living at the time. His boss, however, hearing about his situation decided that he would come and pay the whole months rent in full for this worker for him without expecting anything in return. Said, hey, it was a gift. Well, Keith was so impacted by that in his grad studies even though his grad studies would have taken him in a different direction that changed Keith's life. He thought, you know, one day, I hope I'm in a situation where I am rich enough where I can do what this employer did to me. But after he thought about that for a while, he realized, wait a minute. My employer was not wealthy in and of himself. He just had the small business, but yet still was extremely generous. And he realized, you know, I don't need to wait to be rich to be generous. This man didn't wait. And it made a huge impact on my life, but I can do that even now. Well, Keith's name is Keith Taylor. Keith started a web page called modestneeds.org. And this has become now his grad student business. And what he does is he has a web page where you can come in and anybody that has a need can submit their request. And then through contributions and through other donors, they will review that the board that they have and they will grant those requests. In fact, just in 2009 alone, they gave away $2.5 million to just people who just submitted a request on a web page. In fact, 70% of those that get grants through their organization end up themselves contributing later back into the process. You can't help but say here that this is a success story of generosity that started with just one employer with one part time employee who had no idea how guy might multiply his generosity that took out into a step of faith. I think Keith Taylor is an example of that. I've been into minister to those and blessed those all around him as well. You see, the truth is our reasons are often conflicting with God's reasons. The truth is more than we like to admit that one of those counterfeit or several of those counterfeit reasons sneak in and maybe come prevalent in our thinking, prevalent in our way of living, rather than realizing that God knows the truth is that God's blessed us so that we can worship him and we can be generous to others. We can fall more in love with him as the giver of the gift and want to become more like him in giving to others like Keith reminds us of in this story. When we talk about the problem, we've talked about the truth. Let me get a little more personal and a little bit more uncomfortable for you. Let's look at the test. Number three, the test. Do you give generously money that you have, time that you have? God, sometimes that's harder to be generous with time than it is with money. Your possessions that you have, your talents or your abilities, the spiritual gift that God's given you, are you generous and do you give generously? You know, the Old Testament, go back looking at finances, the Old Testament gives us a model and a picture of giving and what God's expectation of giving. And it's described as the tithe. That was kind of the bare minimum. That was kind of the starting place there in scriptures. God said to come and to give 10% of all that you have. And by the way, to make it of your first fruits, not just after you've done all the other spending you have, see that you've got 10% left over. But no, take the very best of what you have and give that first to the Lord. 10% to remind you that all 100% is God's. As you said, aside the first and the best for him and his purposes. Well, the New Testament doesn't deny the tithe at all. The New Testament goes on to speak even further, even more so to describe as we just read this passage, a life of generosity. It all the more says, you know, your tithe is your starting point. Generosity and a life of generosity is really the end point of what you're going towards. You know, Jesus didn't come and give 10% of his life and his attitude and his possessions and his caring concern. He came to give all of that he had. He was generous in all ways to come and live for us. And he, the scriptures are telling us that the life of Christ, the spirit of Jesus Christ is living inside of you as a follower of Jesus Christ. And he's the one you're seeking to follow as a Christian and your life will model and resemble his which was one of generosity and giving way all that he had. It's a hard question to ask this morning if you're generous, but it's a very important one to ask because it reveals very deeply about our love for God and where we're at spiritually with them. I like the quote that I heard one time. I don't know who said it. They said, Jesus recognizes giving is an action of the heart and is a measure of the heart. People tend to look at the size of the gift or the nobility of the cause, but Jesus looks at the heart of the giver. Jesus owner Tom Monacan, he may not ring a bell, begin to take that seriously back in the 1980s, late 1980s. You see, he was a successful business owner. He owned a chain called Domino's Pizza, which actually at one time would have the majority of all the pizza delivery companies was the lead company. But he began to realize more and more that it was just not satisfying for him that he wasn't finding fulfillment in his job as successful as he could be. In fact, he was at the top of the pizza delivery chain business. So he sold his business and he decided to take his resources and invest them for things for the kingdom of God. Now there's a Christian college now that exists that didn't exist before because Tom Monacan took seriously the call of Christ in his life to make an impact for that. Jess and Angela Carell just an average couple living and walking around that you would probably when it stayed out to you, you saw them shopping in the mall, but they began to take generosity seriously as well. In fact, Jess who had a growing business and growing company began to realize a more and more that what set him free, what made him feel alive was being as generous as he had found that God had been to him. So you see now they live on 10% of what they make and they give 90% away as a regular part of their life and job. Now we might have some students here sitting here going, wow, it's kind of cool stuff. Maybe one day I'll do that kind of thing. Well, you could be like high school student Layton Kuzak who for a senior project in high school was trying to figure out how he could understand and better understand generosity himself. In fact, he put this into this little experiment, some of you may have heard about it, where he took $20 bills and he made them available at his school office and just said, hey, anybody that wants to come and take it can take a $20 bill, but one condition, you have to give it away to help and to serve somebody else. Well, there's no requirement to write down your name or anything like that, but he did provide an anonymous email address for people just responding and writing share their stories about it. He began to hear stories about his fellow students who were taking that seriously. One, two female students had each gotten $20, they were trying to figure out what should they do with it, they went to a nearby restaurant. As they were sitting there, they noticed an older couple sitting across the room and they just thought, you know, I bet our $40 share would cover their meal. So they kind of secretly talked to the waitress there and said, look, we'd like to go and apply our $40 towards their bill for that. Well, the couple that was sitting there heard about what had happened and didn't know who had specifically done it, but they decided to take what they were going to already pay for their meal and they left it completely as a tip for the waitress. The waitress comes back around later and she says, you don't know how much this has meant to me because I'm a single mom with a large family and a lot of needs and this extra goes a long way. I hope my girls grew up just like yours. An example of a high school student taking seriously generosity and putting it to work here. I think of Evelyn Brogan. Some of you know Evelyn Brogan. Evelyn Brogan is a friend of mine. She's a widow at University of Presentory and Church where I was working for 11 years. And Evelyn, as you can think, and she's been a widow as long as I've known her, and I've known her six, 17 years, had an unfortunate thing of having her son. I can remember you dying a car accident or cancer or something like that. I don't remember with that. But having been a widow losing your only son in a car accident and she was a recipient of $100,000 of a life insurance policy. When she was already taken care of, her needs are already being met. She decided to give $100,000 gift to University Presentory and Church for us to put towards the purchase of the first piece of land that they bought. Well, University Presentory and Church now is some 20, 25 years now going as a church there. But it was her donation that made that first piece of land property that they bought stand there. She continues to worship there and continues to work there. But she took seriously her call from God to be generous as well. God blesses us so that we can be generous. My question is this, are you a generous giver like the story John Ortburg shared. John Ortburg is a pastor and a speaker on the country. This happened just in May of 2009, just a year and a half ago. Let me just read it in his own words. He says in May 2009, my family was in Asusa, California because one of our kids was graduating from Asusa Pacific University. My wife Nancy was going to speak at the commencement ceremonies. So she and I were invited to a special gathering of about 50 people, people from the graduating class of 50 years ago and a few faculty members. During the gathering, John Wallace, the president of APU, brought out three students who were graduating that year and told us that for the next two years they were going to serve the poorest of the poor in India. These three students thought they were just there to be commissioned and sent out with a blessing which they were. But then something happened that they did not know was coming. John turned to them and said, I have a piece of news for you. There's somebody you do not know an anonymous donor who is so moved by what you're doing that he has given a gift to this university in your name on your behalf. John turned to the first student and said, you are forgiven your debt of $105,000. The kid immediately starts to cry. John turns to the next student. You're forgiven your debt of $70,000. Even turns to the third student. You are forgiven your debt of $130,000. All three students had no idea this was coming. They were just ambushed by grace. Blown away that somebody they didn't even know would pay their debt. The whole room was in tears. Have you ever been ambushed by grace? Have you heard the words? Your debt is forgiven. Your penalty is paid in full. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ you have. You know we started out this morning talking about the story of a homeless guy on the side of the road. When Jesus himself says in Matthew 8, the foxes have holes. The birds of the air have nests but the son of man has no place to lay his head. When Jesus says on the cross, forgive them. It is finished. He's saying your debt has been canceled. Your debt has been paid in full. My question is for you this morning. For you specifically. Have you generously received from God through his son Jesus Christ? And if you have, are you being generous? Let's pray. If I just ask that you would come and that you would speak to our hearts here this morning. If I would pray that you would remind us of the faithfulness that you have shown us and that you have so richly poured out and lavish on us. The grace of God. God you give us so many blessings. We can't even count them. And it would overwhelm us if we tried. God you give us the greatest blessing, a forgiveness of sins, of canceling our debt. And you didn't just cancel it by pretending it never happened. But you poured out the consequences of our sin on Jesus Christ. He paid them in full. There was a real payment made for that. And that is set us free. So God would you come? Would you let that truth sink in deeply this morning? God has come to your table here in just a few moments. God would you let the reality of that debt being paid, sink in so deeply, God that it would fill us with love, fill us with worship and fill us with generosity as well to be recipients, to be reciprocating. God, just the grace that we've been so grateful to receive from you to those around us, in the places you've called us, in the opportunities that you've given us. Each person here in this room has opportunities to be generous that are unique to them. And Father, we let your spirit speak and may we listen carefully and may we be faithful to enter into that kind of joy, to enter into that kind of life as one that's choosing to be entrusting and becoming more and more generous each day. While we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.