Generosity | Luke 12:32-34

Hey. Well, my name is Joel on the pastors here. And it's so good to have you guys. And it's a special service as Eric mentioned. So let me just encourage you one more time. We would love. I love to have you serve with us. Part of the DNA at Grace point is not just to be people that study the Word of God, although that is the first step, but then also to do the Word of God as well.

And so we're going to have that opportunity. This is about one of the easiest ways in the entire year that you can just help serve just by staying for another service. And so it's going to be an awesome opportunity. So let me just encourage you one more time to definitely take part in that as well. But hey, we are being in a series right now in spiritual disciplines.

And and as you wake, you make your way over to Luke. Chapter 12 is where we're going to be at today, Luke chapter 12. But, you know, honestly, even though I am from Oklahoma, I am not very much of a country music fan now, I'm sorry, some of you are just like, I'm leaving the church, you know?

And and I'm sorry, but it's just not like I've never gotten into the twang and, like, it just it's not my thing. But I will say that out of all the the that country music, it does seem to be at least a little bit more of the honest of all the John like. They'll tell you whenever they're sad because their mom died and their dog died and everything and their truck died and all of that.

Like they'll just clearly lay all of that out. And there is some things that I appreciate about it. I remember there is a song and some of you will know this song, but the chorus of the song goes, I know money can't buy me happiness, but it can buy me a boat, right? And that's really what a lot of us express in America.

Like. That's kind of the mindset that a lot of us have when it comes to money. Like, we kind of know we've heard enough to know money is not the thing that's going to make me happy. It's not going to bring me fulfillment, but it would help, you know, but if I buy a few more things and then that might make me happy.

If I have enough money to know that I'm secure, then that might make me happy. If I buy that boat, it will make me happy. Although if you know any boat owner, you know the most famous phrase that every single boat owner says is the two best days for owning a boat is the day that you buy it in the day that you sell it.

Right? So maybe even that boat wasn't the thing that was going to bring you happiness after all. And today, what we get to look at here, after all these spiritual disciplines, today we reach the spiritual discipline of generosity, giving. And this idea of giving was so integral to what Jesus taught. In fact, he talked more about money than he did heaven and hell combined.

And we say, why was it such a big deal? Because he knows that this is the thing that's going to block your view of heaven. This is the thing that might tempt you down to hell. And so now as we open up God's Word, we get to see actually what Jesus meant whenever he said that we need to sell everything we have and give to the poor, and why that might be the very thing that unlocks life for every single one of us.

Now, as we've been going through this series, we've been having several interviews and being able to hear from different people, different testimonies from the congregation. And we're actually going to do that today. We're actually going to hear a testimony from one of our members and not actually actually want to invite Adam. Adam, will you please welcome Adam Haynes on up here?

Adam is actually one of our trustees. If you don't know, we have a board of trustees that are all volunteers, non staff members, along with Eric and I. And and he helps make sure that whenever we talk about generosity as a, as a core value of our church, he's actually one of the guys that are making sure that we're actually living that out as well as financial accountability and all that.

And so he's one of the few people in this church that I've actually been able just to hear his heart talk about money and, and how we need to treat money. And I've been so encouraged by that, that I've actually just asked them to come up here and share a little bit of his story and what God has laid on his heart.

So thank you, Adam. All right. Thank you guys. So my name is Adam Haines. My wife and I, Olivia, have been in Grace point since 2021. Maybe the end of Covid. It blurs together there for a couple of years. But, so my wife and I a little bit about me. My wife and I met when we were ten.

So we were we were in a small, charismatic church in Rogers, and we met one of seven people in the student ministry there, and we started dating in high school. We got married right after high school, and then we've been married for 26 years this year. So it's a it's a big deal. Thank you.

We have three, three children. So Chloe works at local Lyme. If you ever go to local lives she'll be she may wait on you there. She's 24. Maddie is 21. She's up there with Madison and she's a part of our accessibility ministry here. And we love that. And Asher is over here on the right, and he's just starting his second year at the U of A.

So he's 19 for architecture. Okay, so I, I, my wife and I both grew up around here, but I grew up in a, a small single wide trailer at a Hickory Creek in Springdale. Okay. And those of you who don't know, a single wide trailer is not very large to an eight year old it was. But as I got older, it was not the rich there was.

We had some rich people down the road that had a double wide trailer, and that was that's where you wanted to hang out, was in the double wide trailer. And so in the summer of 1990, my dad gave his life to Christ. We started going to church maybe three months after that. I did the same. And so from 1990, there's like a clear distinction in my life between pre 90 and after 90.

So after 90 all in on church, every Sunday, every Wednesday, every time the doors were open, we were there. And in the summer of 90 my dad started tithing. So that was a big deal to him was tithing is just what you did. And he didn't have much money, I would assume. I don't know his finances, but I would assume he didn't.

And so we started tithing and I can find a clear line of progression from 1990 to now to blessings and provision in the Haynes family, not just his life, but what he also taught me and my brother and my sister as children. Okay. And we live and I have been tithing since we started earning our first jobs, right.

We've been Tylers the whole time and, and, and I don't know if it was the relationship with God or if it was the tithing that did that. I don't know if it was obedience or the relationship with God. All I know is from the moment that happened, there's been a clear progression towards provision of blessing. And I love it and I believe in it.

And so, so to me, there's a correlation between giving and tithing and blessing and provision. And to Olivia and I, the tithing is like we're returning. We have such blessing in our life like we have. God has provided so much for us. Even before we had anything, we just felt like we had healthy children and we had a good marriage.

And like, there's just such a blessing. And so to us, you know, the Old Testament, you had to return your offerings back. And listen, I'm not a teacher of tithing. That's not really what I'm here for. It's for me. It was always like I was so thankful for what he had given us. My tithe was a return of that, in honoring of it.

And I don't know that there's a percentage. I'm not smart enough to know that. I just know for us, we had to return our tithe. And then as we got older, as we got older, like, for example, I'm reading through right now the Chronological Bible. So I don't know something about men loving history as you get older. Like I'm enjoying jumping around in the Bible, reading it in chronological order, right?

It's pretty exciting to me. And so in the Levitical law, which is exciting if your youngsters have ever read the Levitical law, it's incredibly exciting, but it's pretty cool when you read it when you're older because like, you know, the Israelites had to turn in their, their offerings that they, that they that they had the Lord for his provision of for his blessing.

At the same time he commanded them, he commanded them, don't when you harvest, don't harvest around the edges of your field. And when you harvest, don't harvest a second time, just harvest once. In other words, don't be greedy. Like don't ring every bit of thing you can out of your field. And it explicitly says for the widows and for the immigrants and for the sojourners, for the poor.

So in other words, don't ring everything you can out of it. So to me, I realize, like he tells us, to provide offerings right out of honoring and thanksgiving him while at the same time being generous in our communities. So to me, there's a distinction between the two. Okay. And I will tell you, Olivia and I, as we've gotten older, the tithe has gone from kind of the ceiling of where we were in our giving kind of the foundation of where we are as our giving.

So our tithe is there, and it's there to honor God for what he's done for our lives. But now we want to act out as generous people in our community when we see need. Okay. So, for example, some of the things that we do, we Olivia and I both will keep like we kind of budget, we both keep some bills in our billfold and in our purse for opportunistic blessings that we see.

And like I see some I saw somebody in Walmart and they just had their hood up and they were parked at the edge. And if you know, if you're parked at the edge of Walmart, that means you're been there a while or planned to be there a while. So what do you need? How can I help? Here's some cash that I had for the thing that might help you get back on your feet, you know, whatever.

But we have kind of budgeted within ourselves moments to be opportunistic for generosity.

With our children growing up. So it was important for me to try to do something. You're always looking for something to do with kids. We would do random acts of kindness nights in our family, so we would go to Walmart. We would look for somebody that had a cart that needed to be paid for on the good weeks.

It was a bigger cart. On the lesser weeks it was a smaller cart. But you try to find something. We would look for people that were pumping gas that we could pay for their gas. The it was always hesitant for the kids to do that, to walk up to somebody, say, let me do your cart. But Walmart gift cards were great for us.

We would go buy small mart gift cards and like the children, they could at least say, God loves you and we love you. And here's one more gift card. Like that was a way to just have them practice generosity over and above the tie that they do as a part of their jobs. So and then as I've gotten older, we are empty nesters now.

So as of this year, empty nesters, which is both amazing and not amazing at the same time. Those of you that are empty nesters, it's great. And then it's just too quiet sometimes. But as they were leaving, you start realizing, like, I have all these things I want to tell them. And so I've had conversations about generosity with our children as they were leaving to try to practice generosity.

And I tried to boil it up into three things. Three things that I could teach them, that I thought were good for our children, learn as they go into their lives. So one generosity looks different at different phases of their life. So, for example, Asher and Maddie, they're just starting their lives. They got careers. They're going to have marriages and relationships and children.

And like, that is a tough, stressful time of your life, right? Everything hits at once. Okay. And so I know when a live and I were in that place, monetary generosity was tougher. So therefore I helped a lot of people move, and I pushed cars out of intersections all the time because I had a good, strong 30 year old back and it was amazing.

Now, if anybody needs help moving, I will gladly help pay for movers. If you're on the first floor, have a dolly. I'm here, but my back is not the first place I go with generosity anymore. So there are phases to my life when it comes to generosity. I want to encourage you young people out here too. There's phases in your life in generosity, but practice generosity no matter what.

The second thing is that you've got to have margin in your life, right? So relationships and children and career, everybody's when starts their career and do things and mortgages, everything happens. And before you know it, you have no room for generosity either in your schedule because you're running late to get to someplace you can't stop and help that person push their car out of the intersection.

Of financial wise, you just don't have margins, so you've got to leave margin. Just like in every other spiritual practice we've talked about leave margin. I should leave margin. So you got to leave margin. The third thing that I urge them is don't wait for the urging of the Holy Spirit. Okay? When I was younger, I didn't want any awkward.

I didn't want an awkwardness. I didn't want to talk to somebody on the side of the road, didn't want to help somebody in Walmart. So like, I was looking for a reason not to do it. Well, the Holy Spirit didn't urge me to do it. I didn't feel that calling to do it. And now as I get older, like I'm looking for the Lord not to tell me to do something, pull me back.

Right? So if I'm going to veer one way, I'm going to veer on that way. Also, I don't want to wait for the Holy Spirit to tell me to do something that the Lord has already commanded me to do. So he's already commanded me to care for the poor, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison.

I'm not going to wait for the Lord to say, well, that guy doesn't have any clothes. Why don't you have to buy some clothes? He's already commanded me to do it. Don't wait for an urging, okay? I would also say that as a tell a quick story, because this is so if you have teenagers. So, for example, I could ask my kid.

I could ask my kid, hey, when I get home, can you have the kitchen cleaned? Okay, great. We all ask that thing clean summer, their home all day. Can you please clean the kitchen? I get home, the dishes are done or the dishwasher is unloaded. And maybe the dishes in the sink. Right? Okay. It's fine. I didn't know you meant to do all of.

I just didn't know. You just said clean the kitchen. So I thought you meant the dishwasher, right? Typical thing. I'm sure I did it when I was a kid. Two, we never come home, and the dishes are in there and the floor is swept and mopped. And they did the dining room, and they removed all the all the appliances and wiped and everything.

They never do that. Right. So we never go above and beyond when there's a confusion, misunderstanding. I'm not sure what to do. We always hedge our bets on this side of what's comfortable for us. So I encourage my children and myself. I try to practice it. If I'm ever in doubt, lean towards the side of generosity. If you're ever in doubt, be reckless in your generosity, okay?

Let the Holy Spirit pull you back. Okay, so I would say, in short, be generous. Be generous in your communities above and beyond your tithe. Okay? Start somewhere. Start small. If you're not already doing it, but make it a formal part of your wallet, of your budget, of your time to start somewhere. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. And man, I just love his heart and his testimony. And you can see that it's not just we're not just talking about this. This isn't just something because it's like, well, Joel works at the church, so we better talk about money. But no, it's actually something that Jesus talked about and it's something that can radically transform and improve your lifestyle.

And so we are now going to be able to start talking about Luke chapter 12. We're really going to be focused in on just three verses here. But but I will read a few extra later on. But would you please go ahead and stand up with me in Luke chapter 12?

We're going to read verse 32 and following.

Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide for yourself with money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that do not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. And my main point here today, the thing that I want to convey to you over just the next few minutes, is that generosity will remove removes the barriers to seeing God see, in this life there's all sorts of temptation. There's all sorts of idols, essentially all of these possessions.

What happens is we become so consumed with the possessions, so consumed with all the worldly things, so consumed with trying to find more money, that we end up not being able to see God clearly and follow God clearly because we're just following after all of these things. But when we start to say, no, I'm going to give this away, that that is not going to define me, but I'm going to give these things away.

It now frees us up to better follow Jesus because of it. So I want to actually we just that's going to be the main part of our sermon here. But I want to get caught up on the context a little bit. So I'm actually going to jump back verse to verse 22 and just read through some of these verses somewhat quickly here, and just make a couple of notes along the way.

I think it will help us better understand it. He said. In verse 22, he said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, nor what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Consider the ravens they neither so nor reap.

They have neither storehouses nor bond. Yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are they? Are you than the birds? And so it's just a reminder here. Birds, literally bird brains. All right. They do not have any type of foresight. They do not plan ahead. They do not have a 401. They don't have a retirement plan. They have nothing except for when they wake up.

They wake up and they go look for food. And every single morning they find food and they're not worried about it, they're not anxious about it. And God cares more about you than he does the birds. And so if the birds can just wake up and always be taken care of, how much more is that going to be true in your life as well?

In which of you verse 25, being anxious can add a single hour to his life, his span of life, literally in the Greek, it's actually just a span on yourself is basically what it says. And so some of your translations will either say can add a foot to his height or an hour to his life. It could be either one of those based on the Greek.

There's a little ambiguous, but either one, you're not going to do it. I know this because I drink a lot of milk growing up, and I wanted to be six feet tall and it did not help. Like, you can't do it, you can't do it. I learned the hard way. In the same way there are billionaires spending millions of dollars every single year trying to live forever.

You might have seen this right now. It's a big thing and yet it's not going to happen. In fact, one of the most famous ones right now is a guy named Byron Johnson who is trying to live forever. And then he just announced, like last week, that he actually has an autoimmune disease that's eating his gut from the inside out, probably given to him by all the weird stuff he's been putting in his body.

And now we can start to say, what if I actually just trust God with my days? What if to die is actually to gain? And I don't have to be worried about dying. And while I'm here on this earth, God is actually going to be the one who provides for me. And because in verse 26 it says, if then you are not able to do a small thing as that one extra hour, you can't even make yourself live one extra hour.

Why are you anxious about all the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all his glory, the richest man that ever lived was not a raid like one of these. Essentially, Jesus is throwing shade a little bit. He's saying, hey, even the richest man in the entire world wasn't as beautiful as a small flower.

So you know what that means. That means it was like really nice jeans. You just bought the really nice dress you're wearing. Like, you look so beautiful. Your shoes are nice. I'm telling you, y'all look, whatever GPT version of the Sunday best is, you guys are rocking it right now. And. But at the end of the day, a flower still beats you, right?

Like, at no point. At no point have I ever just, like, walked in and seen somebody in a nice outfit and it just takes my breath away. Like I just saw a sunset over the beach. As as beautiful as you might be. Guess what? Eventually those brand new jeans that you just bought that you feel like you look so good in, you're going to donate to goodwill, and some teenagers are going to buy it for $3 and look better in it than you ever did, right?

And yet we worry about these things. But if God so close the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith, and do not seek what you are to eat, or what you are to drink, nor be worried, which are important things.

But he's saying even the most important things. You don't have to be worried about why, for all the nations of the world, seek after these things, and your father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Because when we start to give away and seek after his kingdom, then God says, I will provide for you.

And at the end of the day, as Adam has already mentioned to us, is that you'll never be generous if you're not first content. You have to be able to have some margin in your life to say, you know what? I don't actually need all of this. And because I don't need all of this, then I can be generous.

I mean, how many times as a pastor I've heard just people tell me, well, intention I'm not angry about, like frequently they'll tell. I just can't afford to give right now. But you can't afford to have Netflix, but you can't have Ford to go out to dinner several times a week, but you can't afford all these other amenities.

And maybe it's not that you can't afford to. Maybe you have different priorities than putting the kingdom first in our life. And so until Amen. Until we start to learn and say, you know what, I'm just going to be content with the things that God has given me. And if I'm content with the things that God has given me, then I'm going to have some surplus to be generous with all the things that I don't need anymore.

That in reality was probably just bringing me stress in the first place. And I start to give that away and I can start to see God a little bit more clearly. And so because of that, in verse 32, we get to our main portion. Now it says, fear not. Little flock could also put fear not Pea Ridge. Fear not Rogers get it?

Little flocks of town. You know, I thought it was funny. All right.

You should put this on a sign. Who's ever in low flag. You should put this on a sign somewhere. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Don't fear. You know God be worried. You know God be anxious over this. God has already promised you these things so you don't have to chase after them.

If you're still chasing after them. It means then, that you didn't trust what God had said, that he was going to provide it to you in the first place, and it starts to reveal your heart as well. And so he says, fear not, little flock. If we are a flock, what does that mean? That God is a shepherd, a good shepherd that makes us lay lie down in green pastures that always provides for us.

But not just a good shepherd, it says, for it is your father's good pleasure. So not only is God a shepherd, but he is also a father with good intentions towards us, a good father that loves to give good gifts to his children, and then not just a good shepherd, not just a good father, but to give you the kingdom.

It means if he has a kingdom, what is he? He is the king. So it just multiplies over and over and over. All the good things, all the the things that Jesus can give us. Now, if we start to trust him and not fear, at the end of the day, it is so much safer to put everything that you have into God's hands and trust him with it.

The safest place for your treasure is in God's hands. You know, I have three three boys as I talk about frequently, and they are currently all in different stages of losing teeth, luckily, like the appropriate way, they're not actually fighting or anything like that. But but inevitably, even yesterday, three of them came to me. All three of them came to me and said, I got a wiggly tooth.

And and at this stage of life there, they've never really been into the tooth fairy per se, but they know that dad will give them money. And so essentially what they do is a hostile takeover of me because they're like, hey, dad, I'm losing a tooth, give me money. And I'm like, it's a little bit aggressive, son. But inevitably, like whenever they lose a tooth, I'll end up pulling out a dollar and I'll give them a dollar.

It's inflation, man. I got a quarter. I'm telling you what. But like but but I give them a dollar. And you know what happens for the next two weeks after I give them that dollar. I walk around the house and I'm like, hey, whose dollar is on the ground? Whose dollar is in the yard? Why is that dollar in the washer?

Like every that that money is lost in all the different places. And whenever we go into Walmart and they have a few extra dollars, they're going to want to buy the very first thing that they see. Like boys, you don't need a sprinkler. Why are we buying a spring like? And eventually oftentimes when my guys, why don't you just give me the money back and I'll give it to you when you need it?

And I think with our generosity, the more that we adopt that mindset as well, that says, you know what? God is better at this than I am. And and in reality, I know that he will provide for me as I need it. So why don't I just be generous back to God and the things that he have called me to be generous in, and a bet he's going to provide the things whenever I need it as well.

But we don't have to be worried about tomorrow because he's already said he's going to provide for us. When tomorrow gets here, we can trust him. So what do we do? In verse 33 it says, sell your possessions and give to the needy. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Now,

Back in the day, 2000 years ago, this would have been a bold statement. Just like in 2026, it's a bold statement, and in reality, it's tempting for me to like, come back and say, well, it doesn't say sell all your possessions or like and try to weaken it down. But in reality, like, I think it's supposed to confront us.

Like, if this doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, if this doesn't make you feel like, man, I need to be doing more, then you're probably not actually reading it the appropriate way, because he's saying there's all sorts of things in all of our lives and whatever is this excess, whatever you don't need anymore. God has promised us to give us the needs.

But how much of my life is not actually just even worried about the needs? It's worried about all the overabundance once that I have. And so instead, he says, sell it all. It's not. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. Get rid of it and give it to the needy. In reality, you know, oftentimes we talk about and generosity and church and it kind of gets boiled down to just this idea of like, hey, you better get 10%, give 10%, give 10%.

And listen, if you were to look at my checking account, which, by the way, I don't know what anybody, anybody gives inside this church except for my own family, I realize it's like it's always a little bit awkward. I remember one time I was preaching on giving, and after the sermon, a little sweet old lady came up to me and she's like, pastor, I'm so sorry I forgot a gift last week.

I know this was for me. I'm like, it wasn't, it wasn't for you. So like, if I look at you, it's not because I know you didn't give or anything. Like, like the only person that I know what the giving record is, is my own. Which, by the way, is around 10%. If you wanted to look at it here at this church.

But in reality, I don't want us to see a checkbox that says, well, if I do this, bam, I'm good. Any more than I want you to say, well, I've read the Bible, all right, I'm good. Didn't get anything out of it, but I did the thing. That's not what giving is either. It's this idea of a generous lifestyle.

Are you generous in every single part of your life and reality? Like, I just know, based on the demographics of Northwest Arkansas, for a lot of us, like we could give 10% and we didn't sacrifice a thing because God has blessed us. And I don't really know if we're making the high six figure salaries and we give 10% and we say, haha, now I got the other 500,000 to live off of.

If God's not saying, hey, don't you think I gave you all that to give a little bit more than that? Don't. Don't you think that maybe all of these other possessions might be the very thing that's actually blocking you from following me the way that I have called you to follow me? And if you might be saying, well, Joel, you're just saying this because you want the church to give get more money.

Well, yeah, I want the church to have more money. If I'm being honest, over the last couple of years, it was a season of transition. That's a hard season for a church. And it was like we had a dip in the savings last year. But then this year we actually kind of settled off even, and we're going in a good, good place and all of that.

But but here's the deal. As much as I trust this for my own finances, I also trust it for the church. And so I'm not really worried about the church, but I'm worried about you and your soul. So if you're saying, man, Joel is just saying this because he wants money for the church, like give of fellowship, they're a great church.

Like you call me on my bluff, I don't care, but I want you to be generous. I want you to be generous. I want you to have this heart of generosity that says, you know what? 10% isn't this goal for this extreme Christian, but rather, what if 10% was just the barrier for entry that says, I can give that, and then I want to go ahead and be generous with other ministries as well for my wife and I as well.

Like we give to the 10% to the church, but then we also have other ministries that we try to support over and above and beyond that. Why? Because I know that the more that I try to hoard all the things, the more that that thing becomes, my God, and the more that I let it go, the more that I can actually see God.

Because generosity removes the barriers to seeing God. Generosity removes the barriers to seeing God. So it's to sell your possessions and give to the needy. The rest of that verse is provide yourselves from money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail. Where no thief approaches or no moth destroys.

It says, don't just build up treasures here, but build up so much treasure in heaven where inflation doesn't take down the value of the dollar, where nobody is going to come in and steal. Back then they didn't have doors on their houses, and so it was easy for a thief to come in and steal. If you would have left the money there, you would actually, if you were very rich, you would buy more than one robe and you have multiple outfits to wear, 3 or 4 different outfits to wear.

If you were really, really balling back then, but then the moth would come in and he would make holes inside of all of those different clothes, he says. Anything that we try to do in this earth, it will all fail to all be ashes. It's worthless. So exchange it for money bags in heaven for things. Put your treasure where in heaven?

Because every act of generosity shows that I trust Jesus. Every act of generosity shows that I trust him. For a lot of us, we say, I trust Jesus with my eternity. I know that when I die, I'm going to go to heaven, but I don't trust them enough with my checking accounts because I got bills to pay. But when we start to trust him more with our finances and let go of this grip that's on all of our hearts to say, God, I trust you, I'm going to put my trust in you.

I'm going to be generous in every single aspect of my life. It builds in us a trust that says no matter what comes my way, I know he's got me. Last verse for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Did you notice in verse 33, where is your treasure supposed to be at in heaven?

Meaning this, that if everything that is most important to us is already in heaven, that's where my heart is going to be as well. If God could just write us a check if the next two weeks the check does not come from your employer, but instead it actually comes directly from God, you get a handwritten check from God himself and it has your two weeks expenses on it.

I'm pretty sure in the memo line it would say, hey, build the kingdom and take care of your needs, build the kingdom and take care of your needs. That's all it is. And God has promised that he will do that. So whenever we receive anything in our life, whether it is money, whether it is physical strength, whether it is whatever it is in our life, what are we supposed to do?

We're supposed to build God's kingdom first and foremost, and then we can take care of all the needs around us. Is that your story? I remember, I I'll be honest, this has not been a natural gift for me. I've had to grow in this area myself and I've been humbled so many times. I remember a few years back I was preaching a message on giving in generosity and and at that moment I gave a challenge to the church just in general.

Whoever would want to take it to give 1% more, just stretch their faith just a little bit. So if you're given 10%, give it a percent. And if you're giving zero, just give 1%. Like just give a little bit more this year than you did last year. And after the service, there's a sweet older widow came up to me and she's like, Pastor Joel, can you help me?

Is on the lobby. And she's like, can you help me? I want to set up my giving to give a little bit more. And when she told me that, I'll be honest, my heart sank because in my mind I'm like, oh no, that wasn't for you. That wasn't for the that was for like, all the people that I know could give like ten, 20% more like and I needed to challenge them a little bit.

But it wasn't for the the widow that I knew for a fact that she's already financially strapped. And so, like, I have this internal like back and forth in my own soul, I want to be like, no, don't give, don't, don't. I wasn't talking about this for you. But she was like, I need to do it. I want to give it.

And so she started. I helped her put it on the iPad and give up the set of the recurring thing and all that. It was two weeks later, she came back and she's like, Pastor Joel, can, can you help me do the giving thing on the iPad again? And I'm like, we already did that. Like, what are you talking about?

Like, we took care of that a couple weeks ago. You don't need to do it. Then she was like, oh, you must not have hurt. I'm like, heard what? And she's like, this week I got a letter that said that I have been paying too much in taxes the last few years, and I got a check from the government for $10,000, and I was like, oh.

And she's like, I want to go ahead and tithe off of that now to. And I don't tell you that like, and honestly, I'm like hesitant to tell you stories like that because I don't want you to think for a second that, yes, if I give money, then God's going to financially give money back to me. It could happen, but honestly, it probably won't.

But you know what will happen whenever we give? Whether that's giving of ourselves in our heart, in our strength, whether it's giving of the money that God has so graciously given to me and now I get to give out to him, or whatever it might be that I give away, here's what I can promise you for the next 10,000 years.

There's 10,000 blessings on the other side of heaven for us, and the blessings that we get is just another jewel in the crown that we get aware in. That jewel in the crown. It's going to be one of those things that we take off and we throw at the feet of Jesus, and we say, it was all for you.

And that's what generosity is. It's not a promise that you're going to be rich today. It's a promise that says, I trust Jesus every single day, and I believe in heaven, and I believe that he has promised me that heaven is more real to me than this earth is real. And I know that he's going to take care of me today and tomorrow and for all eternity.

And that's why we get to be dinners in every part of your life. Listen, God does not own 10% of you or your money. He owns 100%. And he's a good and gracious God that has always given me more than I have ever needed. And that can be true of you as well. The more that we trust him, the more that we trust him.

Let's take a minute now. With every head bowed, every our clothes. I want you to take a moment with the Lord and just say, Lord, is there any part of my life that I need to be more generous in so that I can see you more clearly today, in just a minute? As a church as a whole, we're going to live this out.

We're going to go out to the lobby, and we're going to practically live this out at 1045.

But what does it mean for you specifically as well? How can you be generous today?