[0:00] Good morning, everybody. Are you excited about new things? Does anybody get excited about new things?! Good! Wow! That is more than I expected in a Baptist church, alright?
[0:11] I'm messing with you. We are starting off a new series today, a brand new series on Jesus on generosity. I figure if we're going to talk about being generous, we should probably stick to what Jesus has to say about it, because that's probably safe, right?
[0:27] Everybody says, when you go to church, they're always asking for money. Listen, that is not what this series is about. Now, that might be what God does in your heart, but this is about more than that, and we're going to dive into what Jesus has to say about living generously.
[0:43] Imagine this. It's a Baptist church. What do Baptists like to do? Wow, that is the first thing that came to your mind.
[0:56] Well, you're right, because that's what the story's about, alright? Yeah, imagine it's after church, and Baptists get together, and we're eating, and there's a church potluck, and somebody comes in with a big bucket of fried chicken.
[1:10] There we go. Yes, that's the moment to say amen. Still steaming, still crispy. Smells like heaven. Another person walks in with a bag of chips that they grabbed out of the pantry on the way out the door.
[1:22] Who was more generous? The chicken? Truth is, we don't know. We don't know.
[1:34] Just because it costs more doesn't necessarily mean that they were more generous, right? What if that person who brought the chicken is standing there at the head of the line saying, Hey, only one piece.
[1:48] I saw you grab a wing. Put that drumstick back. Would they be generous? Not so much, right? Could be that the person who brought the chips actually sacrificed more, maybe had a more generous spirit.
[2:06] Maybe they gave out of their little instead of their much, right? There's a principle about being generous. Sometimes we'll be the ones who bring the chicken, but sometimes we'll be the ones who guard the chicken too.
[2:24] Sometimes we'll give, but we're going to put a lot of parameters around our gift. Sometimes we're going to say, Yeah, I want to support what God's doing through this church and in this community, but only if it works with how I want it to work.
[2:40] Only if it slots in to how I have it in my head. Sometimes we'll do that with our gift. And so we have to be very careful that we're not just giving, that we're being generous.
[2:54] Well, that is a heart problem. That's something that Jesus can help us with. So, let's go to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. For the next five weeks, God willing, we are going to talk and take a hard look about what Jesus had to say about living generously.
[3:11] Luke chapter 14, verses 33. Verse 33, this is kind of a series verse, so we'll kind of keep referring back to this throughout the next several weeks. Every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.
[3:28] Just thought I would drop that bomb on y'all this morning. Unless you renounce everything you own, you can't follow Jesus. That's a hard thing to say, right?
[3:40] That's a hard thing to hear. It's a harder thing to live. What in the world does he mean by that? Well, let's look at that word renounce. What does he mean by renounce?
[3:51] That's not a word that you and I probably use every day. It's a little uncommon. What does it mean? It means give up the rights to. It means renounce control.
[4:04] Give up control. It doesn't necessarily mean we go and take everything we have and bring it to the church. Number one, we don't want all your stuff, okay?
[4:18] We don't want all your junk. Don't think, you know, this is the garage sale and we're going to bring all my junk to the church. That's not what we're saying here. What it means is we hold everything we have loosely.
[4:32] We have open hands. Open hands. God might place something in that hand for a time and then he might take it out.
[4:44] We hold it all loosely. We renounce our rights. We give up our rights to all our possessions. Listen, in other parts of the world, that's a lot easier for them to do.
[4:56] In America, it's a little bit harder. It's a little bit harder for us to do. Why? Because we have capitalism in America. We have this idea where you go out and you earn what you get and then you got it because you earned it.
[5:11] Jesus says, hold on. You go out, you earn what you get and then you got it, but then you give it up. You give it up to me. Because if I want to take it, I can.
[5:22] I'm the one who allowed you to get it in the first place. And what you don't understand is I might be able to replace it with something far greater, far more meaningful, far better than what you're holding onto so tightly.
[5:38] So that's the idea behind every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple. There's a truth here. Generosity isn't about the size of your gift.
[5:49] It's not about whether you bring chicken or chips. It's about the shape of your heart. Like everything else that Jesus has taught us during the summer, if you were here, I know a lot of you traveled and that's fine.
[6:03] I did some traveling too. But if you were here for most of the summer, part of the summer, you probably heard a sermon on stories of the kingdom. And that was Jesus giving us his parables, giving us these stories, these illustrations about the kingdom of God and how different it is than the kingdom of man.
[6:20] And what it all came down to was, where is your heart? Is your heart for yourself or is your heart for God? Is your heart for just me, number one, or is your heart for others?
[6:32] And so once again, generosity does not come back to what you do, but how and why you do it. That's what generous living looks like.
[6:45] Let's look down a couple chapters back. Luke chapter six and verse 38. Here's a principle on giving. Since we're talking about generosity, let's hit this idea of giving.
[6:56] We just had an offering a moment ago. You will very rarely see me put something in the offering plate because we have this in 2025, this way to give online. And that's a really nice, easy way for me to do that.
[7:08] We go on the church center app and every month I give 10% of my paycheck. Sometimes we'll go ahead and give more to special offerings when there's disaster relief or something going on through Texans on Mission.
[7:18] We'll contribute to that as well. But there's this idea of giving. Why? Well, number one, we gotta keep the lights on in this place. So we keep having something together. We want staff to help lead us in ministries.
[7:30] And so we try to pay them. And there's a lot of cost that comes, real world costs from doing God's work on this earth. And so we collectively give.
[7:41] I give, you give, we all give together. So what does Jesus have to say about giving? Luke 6, 38. Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full.
[7:53] Press down, shaken together to make room for more. In case you don't understand what he was talking about. You know, when you got something, you shake it down, push it down. I can pack more in there, right? That's how God's promising to give back to us.
[8:07] Running over and poured into your lap. Sounds fun, right? Imagine if that was money. Press down, shaken together to make room for more.
[8:18] Running over and poured into your lap. You're like, bring it on. You know what the cool thing is? God's blessings sometimes look like money. But a lot of times, probably most of the time, they're better than money.
[8:31] Sometimes it's far better than what we could, what we think is the goal. You know, none of us actually want money. Did you know that? I was thinking about this the other day.
[8:44] You're looking at me like, speak for yourself, man. That's wrong. No, I'm serious. You don't really want money. You want what money can do for you. You want what money buys you.
[8:57] Or what you think money buys you. We want what money can do for us. There's really nothing special about that paper dollar. Say, yeah, that's why you got to have it backed by gold.
[9:10] Well, there's really nothing special about gold either. It's a metal. It doesn't really do anything for you. It's not going to keep you warm at night. It's not going to keep you happy. It's what these things that we have assigned value to can buy you.
[9:25] We think they can buy us what we need in this life to make us happy. Jesus is saying, listen, what I will give you will make you far happier than this money that you're chasing.
[9:44] Sometimes he'll bless you with money. Sometimes he'll bless you with earthly possessions. But all the time, his blessings will come back to us pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into our lap.
[10:03] Oftentimes, we just don't have the eyes to see it. Because we don't want his blessings. We want what we want. We want what we're pursuing. So, it finishes up by saying the amount you give will determine the amount you give back.
[10:22] The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. That is a kingdom of God principle there. So, man, I just don't feel like I'm experiencing God's fullness.
[10:34] How much time are you spending with God? How much are you giving to God and then expecting back in return from him?
[10:46] There's a principle there. I hope we can wrap our heads around it. So, there's a truth. What you release in faith, God returns in abundance. That's that whole idea of having open hands.
[10:58] Renouncing our possessions. Saying, God, I release this to you. I'm trusting that you will return it in abundance to me.
[11:09] God isn't saying. Jesus isn't teaching that you can't have stuff. He's saying your stuff can't have you. Does that make sense?
[11:21] Jesus, he's not saying that you can't have your boat. You got to go sell it. He's not saying you can't have your new cowboy boots that you just got, even though you didn't really need them.
[11:32] He's not saying you can't have stuff. He's saying your stuff can't have you. Several weeks ago, we talked a little bit about another principle that tied in this story.
[11:42] And I want to bring it back, even though you've already heard it once before. Maybe you'll remember it now if I've told it to you twice. And I heard this story of this rich guy who had bought this brand new boat. That's why a boat's on my head. In my head.
[11:55] But this guy was out. And the youth activity, his church was going to go out on a lake and they were going to have fun. And so he had these teenagers in his boat. He volunteered, his brand new luxury boat, rich guy.
[12:07] And they went out there on the lake. And they're going around and having fun and playing, doing all their stuff, whatever they're doing. And they get back and his boat is just torn up.
[12:19] I mean, seats have holes in them. The teenagers were pretty rough on it. There's stains everywhere. It was just rough. They didn't treat it particularly well. And you and I, if we had made that kind of investment and that kind of thing happened to what we just did, what we just bought and put out a bunch of money for, we would probably be like, what in the world?
[12:43] What are you doing? Can't you take care of stuff? But he didn't have that attitude. Now, those kids, yeah, they should have taken better care of what they were entrusted with.
[12:56] But his attitude was, well, God, kind of surprised you let that happen to your boat. But all right, whatever. He just moved on. Said, this isn't mine, it's God's. I'm just holding on to it for God for a little while.
[13:09] So his whole idea was he had released his big money purchase to God. Said, God, I felt like you wanted me to get this.
[13:21] I'm going to enjoy it while I have it. But I sure am going to offer it up for the church to use. And if that backfires on me, I don't see it as backfiring. Because there's a bigger purpose than whatever purpose I had in mind for this boat.
[13:38] Whatever purpose you have in mind for your stuff, understand that God has a bigger purpose in mind. For you and your stuff. So don't let your stuff have you.
[13:50] You don't own what you can't lay down. If you can't let it go, it owns you. You don't own what you can't lay down. If you can't let it go, it owns you.
[14:02] Open hands don't mean they're empty hands. It means they're available hands. So let's see what Jesus says happens next. Give and you will receive.
[14:14] Your gift will return to you in full. Press down, shaken together, make room for more. Running over, poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you give back. So the principle he's teaching us here is abundance.
[14:27] It's generosity. God is promising to be generous to us. Once again, hear me clearly. That doesn't mean your bank account is going to triple. Okay?
[14:38] God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. The Bible teaches us that's a principle that means he owns everything. There's nothing that is beyond his grasp. God's never going to not be able to pay his bills, so to speak.
[14:51] God's never going to go poor. God's never going to run out of resources. So if he truly is our father and we are his children, then he's going to care for his children like a good father would, and he's going to be generous toward us.
[15:08] That doesn't mean giving us what we want all the time. Because how good of parents are we if we just give our kids what they want all the time? Kids, do you want your parents to give you what you want all the time?
[15:23] Obviously, the kids do, right? Yes. Parents, are you going to give your kids what they want all the time? No. That's crazy. Anybody seen the movie Yes Day?
[15:35] Don't do it. Yeah, all the kids have. My kids are always like, when are we going to have a yes day? I said, never. Never. You're never going to have a yes day. Sorry. I don't trust you that much.
[15:47] The idea is whatever the kids ask you for that day, you have to say yes to. You can't say no all day. Like, no, no. My kids are too clever. They would figure out. Anyway, I'm not buying you a car when you're 10.
[15:58] All right. I'm not doing a yes day. So listen. We are generous with our children, but it doesn't mean we give them everything they want.
[16:09] God is generous with us, but it doesn't mean he gives us everything we want. He gives us everything we need and so much more. Truth is, we can make it without most of the stuff that we have.
[16:25] But God has allowed us to have more than we need out of his abundance. Would you go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 8? 2 Corinthians chapter 8.
[16:37] We're going to be here for just a little while before we get back to Luke. Look at verse 1.
[16:47] 2 Corinthians 8. 1. We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia. What's going on here? Well, Paul's writing. Paul's writing. It's his second letter that we know of to this church in Corinth.
[17:00] And he's teaching them about another church. Actually, a group of churches in this place called Macedonia. The church in Corinth was wealthy.
[17:12] By comparison, they were well off. Corinth was a big city. The gospel of Jesus had touched many influential, wealthy hearts in Corinth.
[17:23] And a church had formed. And they grew. And they were doing well. And they had money. They had resources. And so these are the people that Paul's writing to. And he's using this group of churches in Macedonia, a different part of Asia, who were at the other end of the social spectrum.
[17:40] These were poor people. They did not have the resources to get by. They're scraping by every month. And they're trying to pull together and make it through and follow Jesus at the same time.
[17:51] And so he's going to teach them something. These wealthy people, spiritually gifted. But you know something else about Corinth? They were hesitant to give.
[18:03] Have you ever noticed that wealthy people are not always the most generous people? Sometimes they be stingy. It's true. Sometimes they are generous.
[18:16] Sometimes they establish foundations and charities. And they go out of their way to give back. It's not always the case. And in Paul's experience, this church in Corinth had been very hesitant to part with their hard-earned resources, of which they had an abundance, to give to keep the ministry going.
[18:37] However, he had the opposite experience with the poor churches in Macedonia. So he teaches them in verse 2 of chapter 8.
[18:47] During a severe trial brought about by affliction, this church in Macedonia, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
[19:01] I can testify that according to their ability and even beyond their ability of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints.
[19:15] Not just as we had hoped. They went beyond. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God's will. So we urged Titus, the pastor there, that just as he had begun, so he should also complete among you this act of grace.
[19:36] So he's talking to this pastor in Corinth and saying, look, help your church see what these people saw. Help them unlock this grace of giving.
[19:48] This act of worship of giving. That this church in Macedonia, out of their poverty, they gave. They didn't just give because they were asked to. They actually asked us.
[20:00] They begged us to let them contribute to the work that God was doing. Said, look, we value this. It's important to us. We don't have much. But such as we have, we want to give it.
[20:13] That is generosity. Whether God has given you much or a little, it's having open hands and saying, God, let me be a part.
[20:24] Use what I have. I might have much, but it's little compared to you. I might have little, and it's still little compared to you.
[20:35] But God, even though you don't need what I have, let me have the blessing. Let me have the privilege of giving it back to you and investing in what you're doing and return it to me, God, because I care.
[20:50] It matters. I value it, what you're doing in this world. I value what you've taught me. I value what you've done in my life. I value what you've done in my family's life. So I'm going to go the extra step.
[21:01] That's what this church was doing. And that's what Paul was teaching the church in Corinth by using them as an example. So he says, Now, as you excel in everything, flattery always works.
[21:14] You guys are great at all this other stuff. In faith, speech, knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love for us, excel also in this act of grace.
[21:26] First Baptist Henrietta, can I talk to you all for just a second? You excel in many things. Many things. Excel also in this.
[21:40] Be generous. Hold on to things loosely. Whatever that looks like for you. You take that to God. You pray it out. Sincerely. Sit down with God.
[21:51] Sit down with your wife or your husband. And you figure out what God has for you. Be generous. Because if we release instead of hold on tightly, then God can take what we offer up to him and make it so much more abundant.
[22:09] So much more bountiful. And we can see God work in powerful ways if generosity takes over our heart. So, verse 9.
[22:20] There's a principle here. Generosity is not about wealth. It's about worship. Look back at verse 9, would you?
[22:33] I can't say back because we hadn't gotten there yet. But he's saying, excel also in this grace. I'm not saying this as a command. Rather, by means of the diligence of others, I am testing the genuineness of your love.
[22:45] That's a key verse. Verse 8, right before we get to verse 9. I don't want you to miss it. He's testing the genuineness of their love. He's saying, I know that you love God. I'm testing how genuine it is.
[22:57] I know that you say you want to follow Jesus. I'm testing how deep that runs. So now we get to verse 9. Ready? You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[23:09] Though he was rich, for your sake, Corinthians, for your sake, first Henrietta, he became poor.
[23:21] So that by his poverty, you might become rich. Not in your bottom line, but in the wealth of the goodness of God.
[23:34] Has his goodness transformed you? Has it made you nicer? Has it made you happier? Has it made you more friendly? Has it made you more approachable?
[23:50] Has his goodness changed you? God wants to be so generous to you with his goodness, but you got to release what you're holding on to.
[24:00] So he says, though he was rich, for your sake, he became poor so that you can then become rich. Generosity is not about wealth.
[24:12] It's about worship. Jesus gave up all his wealth. And he was the most generous. We should be able, be willing to give up our wealth so we can embrace his generosity.
[24:27] Follow his example. We've got to renounce our possessions. Hold them loosely. Jesus didn't just give an offering in the offering plate. He gave himself. Listen, we need the offerings in the offering plate.
[24:42] Like I said, we've got to keep the lights on. But God needs you to give yourself. You need you to give yourself. And we need you to give yourself.
[24:55] My family needs me to give myself. Your family needs you to give yourself. to be truly generous. Jesus didn't just give an offering.
[25:06] He gave himself. So if you come to church today and you go home and say, man, the preacher was just preaching about money again. He just wants us to give more. You missed it.
[25:16] That's not what it's about. It's not just about putting an offering in the offering plate. It's about giving yourself and letting God change you. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, teaches us this principle.
[25:34] Would you go to Proverbs chapter 11 verse 24? Generosity is not measured in dollars. It's measured in discipleship. Are you becoming a disciple, a follower of Jesus, or does giving back to God just mean dollar signs in your mind?
[25:53] Because if it means dollar signs in your mind, that's not it. you're missing it. Proverbs 11 verse 24, give freely and become more wealthy. Be stingy and lose everything.
[26:07] The generous will prosper. Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. Here's another kingdom of God principle that's so opposite from how we think.
[26:19] And if you get your financial advisor in here, you say, wait a minute, that's not true. If you save more, then you'll become more wealthy. Jesus is teaching if you give it up, you'll become more wealthy.
[26:31] Why? Because you've tapped into the supernatural. You've tapped into the divine. You've tapped into the kingdom of God. The power of God is unlocked in your life.
[26:45] And then he makes you wealthy in the areas that matter. His peace, his grace, his forgiveness, his joy, his comfort, his stick-with-you-ness, whatever that is.
[27:04] But he sure does do it. We unlock the potential, the power of experiencing God in our lives when we're generous and give to him and to others.
[27:18] So, there's a principle here. If we refresh others, God will refresh us. If we refresh others, God will refresh us.
[27:30] You know the first way that happens? By refreshing others. How many of you have helped somebody and you felt good afterwards? Yeah, it's not just me.
[27:42] When you refresh others, God instantly often refreshes you. And it keeps going. God is generous toward us with his refreshment, with his blessings.
[27:58] Generosity isn't just good life advice. It's a principle of God's kingdom. It's a law of God's kingdom. It's opposite of how you and I think. God wants to break through our selfish thinking, our selfish mindsets, to see that if we refresh others, God will refresh us.
[28:18] this is generosity. This is talking about being a generous person, not someone who just acts generous sometimes. You understand there's a difference?
[28:31] You can be generous sometimes, but you're not a generous person. God wants to change you, not just what you do.
[28:43] Can we get that through our heads? God is less concerned more concerned about what we do and more concerned about how and why we do it. If he can change the why and the how, then what we do will fall into his plan.
[29:01] What we do will be according to his will. Romans 12, 2 teaches us that he wants to change the way we think and then all of a sudden we'll understand the will of God when we start thinking like he does.
[29:16] So, real quick, generosity is a lifestyle, not a mood. It's not just a mood that strikes you. I'm going to be generous in this situation.
[29:27] It's a way of life. It starts with a moment by moment decision but it starts with prayer, going to God. God, change me. Make me generous like you've been generous to me.
[29:41] We're going to get awkward for just a minute. Can y'all handle that? You've got it in your bulletin if you've got that in front of you. We're going to try to do this throughout the series.
[29:51] I hope that y'all keep showing up even though we're doing this, alright? I'm going to say God gives. You say we give back. I'm going to say how do we give back? You say hands open, eyes up.
[30:04] You don't have to do the can if you want to. You really want to get into it. Alright, here we go. Ready? God gives. Hey, that was good for the first time.
[30:16] How do we give back? Yes, that's right. Alright, we're going to try to remind ourselves of that every day. God has given so much to us we should be so willing to give it back to Him.
[30:28] And how do we give back to Him? Not stingy, not protecting it, our investment, not guarding it. Don't you take two pieces of chicken. No, we give back. Hands open, eyes up toward Him.
[30:42] Alright, one more time. Ready? God gives. We give back. How do we give back? Hands open, eyes up. Yes, amen. So, what have we learned from God's Word today? Number one, generosity is not about size, it's about surrender.
[30:57] Generosity is not about the size of your gift or the dollar amount behind it, it's about how surrendered your heart is regarding your possessions, the things you hold the most dear.
[31:09] And then number two, sorry, generosity does not subtract, it multiplies. We think that when we give, we see the dollar amount leaving our bank account, oh, well, we're down that much.
[31:19] Nope, God is gonna take that gift and multiply it and give it back to us according to His kingdom and what is most valuable, truly the most valuable. And number three, generosity starts with Jesus, not our wallets.
[31:34] I'm not asking you to get on board with everything that you see happen in the church. I'm not asking you to get on board with everything about the person who is in need. What I'm asking you to do is get on board with Jesus because Jesus taught us to give, to be generous.
[31:54] While we were still sinners, Jesus gave Himself to us. Let us not hold one another to a different standard than God holds us.
[32:07] Generosity starts with Jesus, not just reaching for your wallet. Oh, the preacher just wants more money. That's not what it's about. If you think that's what it's about, you missed it today. The preacher wants you and myself to be generous like Jesus has been generous to us.
[32:25] So what do we do this week? Number one, open our hands. We said it just a moment ago, release it, renounce it. Say, whatever I have, God, if you want to take it, it's yours.
[32:37] If you want me to give it, it's yours. Release our hands. Release our possessions. And then number two, lift our eyes. We're looking at Jesus. We're not looking at ourselves.
[32:48] Man, look how much I gave this year. The IRS is going to be so impressed with how much charitable contributions that I can claim at the end of the year. It's not what it's about and they don't care.
[33:00] But listen, it's about Jesus. It's about Him. It's about trying to please Him. It's about recognizing how much He gave up for us and being willing to give it back to Him.
[33:10] We're lifting our eyes to Him. Hebrews 12, 2, looking at Jesus, He's the author and the finisher, the completer of our faith. He's who it's about. And then number three, we start small, but we start now.
[33:24] Maybe you haven't been giving. I was telling somebody else this earlier. I don't know. By the way, I don't know who gives and how much they give. I have no idea. I do not see that. So I don't know if you're giving or not.
[33:35] If you haven't been, it might be hard for you to jump in and start giving this massive amount of money every month. Start with something. Just like if you haven't been reading your Bible, read a verse.
[33:46] If you haven't been praying, pray a short, small prayer to God from your heart. If you have not been giving, give something. Five dollars is more than you were giving before.
[33:59] One dollar might be more than you were giving before, kids. Do something, but start now. Say, God, I want to start this. I don't know how I should do this.
[34:11] I don't know if I'm doing it right. It doesn't really matter, right? It matters how and why. So if you want to be generous back to God like he's been generous to you, he will bless you and he will guide you on how to do that.
[34:25] So, don't wait until you're wealthy. Start being generous. Start now. Start where you are. Hands open.
[34:39] Eyes up. That's the posture of a disciple. It's the posture of generosity. Jesus said, renounce it all.
[34:51] Give it up. Hands open. Why? Because that's how he treated us. It's what he did for us. He left it all.
[35:02] Humbled himself. And gave everything on our behalf. Would we not do the same for him? Would you pray with me? God, make us a church that gives back.
[35:15] Hands open. Eyes up. And use that to make Henrietta look more like heaven. It's what it's about, God. We're not here on this earth just to get all we can for ourselves.
[35:33] We're not here on this earth just to grow our bank accounts, to increase our personal understanding of our security, that we're never going to run out of money, everything's going to always be okay.
[35:49] That's not why we're here. We're here to see you transform us and then use us to transform our community, our families, the circles of life that you've given us, that you've placed us into.
[36:04] So use us to give back, hands open, eyes fixed on you, and do a powerful change in our hearts, God.
[36:16] Every one of us needs to be more generous. I need to be more generous. It's not just what I give, it's how and why I give it.
[36:28] It's keeping that perspective. God, change our hearts this morning. Listen, if you don't understand what we're talking about today, it's okay. It might be because Jesus has not forgiven you of your sins yet, you'll understand the debt of gratitude that we feel we owe him because of what he did for us.
[36:52] I quoted that verse earlier, while we were still sinners, Jesus Christ came and died for us. That's what it comes back to. You and I are not naturally good people.
[37:02] We mess up. We sin willingly. We disobey God. But knowing that, Jesus Christ, the perfect son of God, came down to this earth, offered himself up as the sacrifice for our sins.
[37:16] He hung on the cross and he died, taking all of our sin debt on himself and paying for it once and for all. But he didn't stay dead. He rose from the grave because he is God.
[37:27] He's truly the divine son of God, more powerful than you and I are. He's not like us. now he offers forgiveness. Saying, I paid the debt of your sin.
[37:40] You don't have to pay it on your own. You don't want to suffer the eternal consequences of your sin apart from God. Accept my forgiveness today.
[37:54] So if that's you, I don't want to leave here today without giving you a chance to accept Jesus' forgiveness of your sin today. Would you slip your hand up and say, if that's me right now, I'm not going to call you out or make you uncomfortable, but I just want you to slip your hand up and say, that's me.
[38:10] I need to put my faith in Jesus today to forgive me. Would you slip your hand up now? Thank you. Thank you. I assume most of you in the room have done this at some point in your life and you would call yourself a child of God.
[38:22] And so if there's something else that you need prayer about, say, maybe I need to be more generous. Maybe it's something else that God's dealing with me about. Thank you.
[38:33] Thank you. Thank you. God, you see all the hands and if I miss some, you saw them and you know what's going on in their hearts. Pray that you would intervene right now. Let your spirit and his voice be so much clearer, so much louder than any other noise in their minds.
[38:51] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Church, thank you for being here this morning. If you would like to come down and talk with Jared, he'll be down front.
[39:04] I'm going to ask, who can I call on real quick just that wouldn't be uncomfortable? Bruce, I got you, man. Would you mind coming up and just closing us in a word of prayer and thanking God for allowing us to gather and worship today?
[39:16] We thank all of you for being here. Don't forget about Wednesday nights. This is the first Wednesday of the new month and so Wednesday night on the first Wednesday of each new month we're going to gather in this room kids, teenagers, adults.
[39:29] By the way, a bunch of y'all been showing up Wednesday night and I'm grateful for that. Thank you for being here, for valuing the community and fellowship of our church together. So we're all going to be in this room this Wednesday at six o'clock. We're going to gather for some worship.
[39:41] We're going to have a lot of fun and then we're going to dismiss the kids and the teens to their area and the adults are going to stay in this room and we're going to get on our knees and we're going to talk to God. You don't have to get on your knees. You can sit in a pew.
[39:51] That's fine. But we're going to spend some time in prayer. How many of you all believe prayer works? Yeah. I think just about every hand in this room is raised. I do too.
[40:02] And so if our church comes together as a church and prays, I think God hears that and he'll work and he'll act accordingly. So let's do that. I know some of you can't be here Wednesday nights.
[40:13] You've got work or you've got other commitments that pull you away. But if you can, come join us. Come join us at 6 p.m. We'll worship and then we'll pray. Probably about 6.30 is when the prayer will get started. And so be here.
[40:24] All right. Thank you much.