Generosity (1 John 3:16-18)

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Amen, good morning. Good and grab your Bibles and turn to First John, chapter three. We’re in our last week of our refresh series. He’s still worth it. And we finish up with our mug acronym. If you remember, that’s our mug acronym. What’s the M stands for? Mission you and G. Generosity. Well, the last time I preached was Philippians 410 through 23, which is all about generosity. That was not that long ago. So we’re doing another one a generosity. So I guess I’m just that guy. But we are not passing the plate again this morning. Because that’s not the point, right? The point is to look at this mug acronym and say, This is what we want to be about in the city new initiative, we want to what we want to be true of our church going forward, as well. So I want you to think about when you have been a recipient of someone’s generosity, as you think back in your own life, just listen to some of these examples. A husband and father out of work for 10 months. And in two separate occasions, church members took care of a mortgage payment for that family. Your son is born, needs heart surgery. So you’re away from home for a couple of weeks, and your small group decides to go over and clean your house top to bottom, fill your pantry in your fridge with groceries and meals. Maybe cheques, cash gift cards have come to cover medical expenses and transportation, travel costs for to and from the hospital. Someone gives you money to help with significant home repairs that you can’t afford at that time with their own rainy day fund. Or you’re needed of a new car. So you buy one from someone in the church. And when you give them their your last payment, they rip up your check. Why do I tell you these stories? Because these are personal. These are stories that Brandon and I, as pastors have experienced. These are our lives, our stories, the generosity shown to us at our last church, and with you. All of these things have happened to our families. So we’ve been on the receiving end, we have experienced the generosity of God’s people. And I’m sure you have that story in your mind when you are recipient of God’s generosity of his people’s generosity. And we could share story after story, I’m sure and hopefully you’ll be able to do that with someone here today or in a community group. But what all these stories have in common, there are people who loved someone else. So much they’re willing to sacrifice their own things for the good of someone else, somebody who was in need. So the main point is you’ve seen your notes this morning is the evidence of love is selfless generosity toward others. The evidence of love is selfless generosity toward others. One of the earliest markers of the Church of Christians was our generosity towards others, was our love. For others. It was not just written about in the Bible, in the book of Acts, or in Philippians. Or in Corinthians, it was also written by extra biblical sources, historians wrote how much the church loved each other cared for each other in the world. So if you were at recall this past Sunday, which again, if that’s new to you, you probably weren’t there. So our annual meeting. So recall is the new name because annual meetings boring. But if you were there, you heard some amazing numbers, amazing numbers about where we are as a church financially. God’s faithfulness and your faithfulness is evident that evening. So we’re doing well financially as a church and we praise God for that. We are still paying cash for the renovation. So we praise God for that. We are paying bills and the staff. Thank you, by the way. So we’re thankful we praise God for that. But what isn’t clear what we cannot see and charts and graphs and percentages, is our hearts. That doesn’t come across. We get numbers and those numbers were good. But we do not see the heart that’s not clear. So how do you give when you put that envelope in the offering plate, drop it in the giving box, click the yellow donate button as we talked about, what is your heart doing in that moment? Are you giving reluctantly?
Are you giving without thinking? Or is it an act of worship each and every time? Who do you think about when you give? What is your heart doing in those moments? Because Jesus in the Sermon mount when he’s speaking about storing up treasures in heaven and not treasured on Earth says in Matthew five verse 21, he says For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus wants to be our treasure and Not our things. So Jesus is always after our hearts. That’s the whole sermon on the mount is he’s after our heart, and not only for him, but our heart for others, as well. So one of the greatest test of our faith is our generosity towards other believers first, and then the world, too. So John, who’s writing this letter takes his cue from Jesus, and He wants us to kind of test our faith. And so John, in his epistle here, in his letter, he writes, that He gives us three tests, to check whether or not we are walking with the Lord, to say, No, I say I follow Jesus. Okay, here’s some tests to make sure that that’s actually true. So the first one is the truth test. This is just simply do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came to the earth that he died, that He rose from the dead? That’s the truth test? Then you have the obedience test? Do you do what God commands because Jesus says, If you love me, you will do what I command. So those are the two tests, we’re not going to look at those this morning, because we’re jumping right into the middle of the book, just for one week. But the third test is the love test. This is the test. Do you love God? And do you love others? And that’s what we’re going to look at. Do our actions show that we love God, and we love others. Now, John, is my kind of preacher, I think we would have been really good friends. Okay, if I could hang out with him, I would. He’s not too flashy. He’s pretty simple. He just lays it out there. And then he says it over and over and over and over again, until we get it. And that’s what we have in the in the book of First John. It’s like I said, we’re jumping in the middle. But he’s kind of already said this before. And he will say it again later in the book, as well. So we’re just kind of jumping in here to First John 316 through 18. But what we’re talking about with generosity is we’re going to see three things, we see the foundation for generosity, in verse 16, then we’re gonna see, and we’re gonna kind of an attitude check in verse 17. And finally, we’re gonna have some action steps in verse 18. So let’s start by looking at the foundation of generosity, which is verse 16. This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. love is sacrificial action. It’s not really complicated, like we complicate love a lot, because we just keep redefining what love is. But it’s actually pretty simple. Because we look at God’s word. He’s the same yesterday, today. And forever. We hear in First John, that God is love. So if he looked him, we understand what love is, we learn what love is what it should look like in our lives, as believers. And here we see the evidence clearly displayed in the love of Jesus for us and his selfless generosity to you and to me. So imagine with me for a moment, though, that as the apostle John is thinking through this, he has to be thinking back to Jesus’s ministry when He was walking with him. He’s one of his closest friends. And we get to this last week of Jesus’s life, and we get to what we know as the Last Supper, what we’re going to be taking here in just a little bit as we come to Lord’s Table. And John had been with Jesus at all these really important pivotal moments, he’s had plenty of meals with Jesus, but this one is a little bit different. At this one, Jesus gets up from the table, takes off his outer garment puts a towel on, and he gets on his knees and washes the feet of every single one of his disciples. Every single one. Now, Peter, who can’t keep his mouth shut, washes his feet. Judas gonna betray him, washes his feet. And here’s John, picturing Jesus at His feet, washing them doing what a servant is supposed to do, not what the King of Kings as we sing about is supposed to do, not what we think anyways. And then Jesus sits back down, and he just keeps talking. He just keeps teaching and this is what he says them, love one another, as I have loved you. So you must love one another. Later on, Jesus says to His disciples in John 1512, through 13, my command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Greater love. There’s nothing greater than laying down your life for one’s friends. And John sees Jesus loved that moment as he’s looking at him washed his feet. Could you imagine like, was it getting more awkward, the more feet that Jesus washed, was it wasn’t getting less awkward where they just getting used to it.
I mean, imagine how it would be to go to each and every person washing their feet. Just I think there’s no reason you should be doing that. And John’s thinking about that he’s like, this is the sacrifice so So is this what I’m supposed to do? I’m supposed to be a servant to all I’m supposed to love others in this way. Yes. But then just a few hours later, little did John know that his friend his master was going to literally give his life for his friends, the greatest act of love giving himself up in the cross for John, For you and for me. But John was at the cross, the only one we know of, of the disciples who was at the cross, looking at Jesus. And you think you thought back to those words, you just just said hours before. Love, as I have loved, you love each other as I have loved you. And so here’s John writing this letter to Christians, he can’t get this image out of his head. This is how we know what love is. That Jesus gave up his life that he sacrificed for us. He’s doing this for me. He’s doing this for us. So are we ready to do the same? Because that’s what he calls us to in this passage. Now, what does all this have to do with generosity because we don’t see the word generosity in here at all. generosity and love are connected. Right? generosity and love are connected John 360, not first, John 316. But John’s most famous verses that are quoted John 316. For God so loved the world that he what that he gave, that he gave the gift of His Son, generosity, and love are linked. The love that God had for us was demonstrated was evidenced by the love of Jesus going to the cross. Now any one of us can probably be guilted into giving. Okay, you play some sad music, social sad photos. We feel bad and we will give in some people will even give sacrificially in a moment, but to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters to say nothing I have is mine. It’s God’s so therefore it’s all yours can only happen if it’s fueled by love. Not a moment. But a lifestyle of generosity comes from a heart flowing with love of understanding. This is what love is. Jesus given up his life. And that’s the thing Jesus says this multiple times for his ministry, he lays down his life for his friends, or in John 10. He says, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. No one takes his life from him. He lays it down on his own. It is intentional, it is sacrificial. It is love. Love is sacrificial action, and it comes out in generosity. When we go to others and we give to them, Warren weirs, B says this, he says self preservation is the first law of physical life. But self sacrifice is the first law of spiritual life. Right? Like we’re all about preserving our own life until we meet Jesus. And then it’s like, take my life. That’s the difference. Take my life, I want to sacrifice I want to give because that’s the radical nature of God’s love toward us. And the radical shift that takes place in our life when we believe in him. So it’s easy to say you’d sacrifice your life and when I think it’s pretty easy. I know, we would say that to people in our life, especially our family, that I would die for someone else. But it’s really hard to live this out in the day today to say, My money is yours. My car is yours. My home is yours. My food is yours. Whenever you need it, you can have it. That’s a true test of generosity, and love. Because giving to others is so easy. When it’s convenient for us. How often is it convenient? How often that’s the true test of love. When it’s not convenient. We give. That’s the laying down of our lives for others. And that’s what we see Jesus do. So John is going to put our love to the test here in the next two verses. There are three tests of face faith. This is the love test. So do you love God? And do you love others? Look at verse 17. For this kind of attitude check that we get says if anyone has material possessions and see the brother or sister in need, but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? So if you if you flip that verse, make it a statement and turn it positively, you get the main point of this morning. The evidence of love is selfless generosity toward others.
That’s what it is. So looking at this, we all have stuff if we’re in this room, we have material possessions, we have food, we have clothes, we have money, we have the things of this world that are temporary, and many of them are necessary to survival, but not all of them. But we know from Jesus’s teaching already that we’re supposed to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, not on earth where moth and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal. That’s not what we’re supposed to do. Which means the material possessions while good, a gift of God are not meant to be hoarded, not meant to be accumulated just for more and more, and they are not meant to be held on to. How much of your stuff do you really need? And Jack? And I asked this question a lot when our neighbors lost everything in a fire about a year and a half ago, we just sat there, we looked around our house, and we said, what would devastate us, if we lost it? Like what can’t be replaced? And it was just people. That’s it. But what happens six months down the road, all of a sudden, you start to look around your house, like, that’s terrible, we should do something about that. All right, are we start to think that we need something that we don’t actually need when others other people that actually have needs real material possessions, they need it, and they need it from us, maybe we’re the only way they’re going to get it. So all of these things can be used for others goods. Unfortunately, our mindset oftentimes, is thinking, first of all, what we need or what we want to get, and not what other people need. Right? Maybe they can get the leftovers, but we need this first. So it’s about a right attitude. All right, I love what Matt Chandler says, he says everything we own, will end up in a garbage dump or a garage sale. And it’s true. But I’ll add to that, because some of you’re like, Well, I have something from you know, somebody in the past from 500 years ago, my family or something. Okay, it’s gonna end up on Antique Roadshow. But sometime down the road, somebody’s been making money off of it. Okay, but it’s not going to be there forever. So the question is, is what can I do with what I have? Because I can’t take it with me, I’m not supposed to just accumulate. And then the question is, Who do I give this to? Because in this passage, it’s talking about brothers and sisters in Christ, that we have to take care of first. It’s not that we’re not supposed to give to the world, or the people in need outside of our church. Of course, the Bible is full of that. That’s how we demonstrate God’s love to others. But here in this context, we’re supposed to give to brothers and sisters in need first, because if we don’t take care of everybody here, we’re never going to take care of people out there. So we can’t take care of a brother or sister. If we can’t show love and generosity and show what Christ’s love has done to us, and then through us, we’re not going to be able to be generous to a watching world. So first, it’s about our brothers and sisters in Christ, those who have been bought with the blood of Jesus. So it’s about our attitude. So what is your attitude when a need comes up? And I was trying to think of these different attitudes that I have had at some point in my life when I’ve heard of a need. And so maybe you’re here? Maybe that’s what you usually think of? Or maybe you’ve heard all of these or thought all these are made excuses like all of these before? Well, they brought it upon themselves. Some people just make bad decisions. Have you ever thought that? Am I the only one? What’s mine is mine. I earned this, I saved up for this. You have no no idea how long we’ve wanted to do this project. Or this one, they didn’t ask for it. They may come and ask me. So maybe they asked somebody else. They didn’t say they needed anything from me. Or most likely, there’s just an indifference. Like we feel bad for a moment, we may pray. But then we get distracted by something else. And we never come back and think of it. Because we’re just distracted. A few seconds go by and we move on to the next thing. Maybe you don’t trust what they’ll spend it on. Maybe don’t trust there’ll be wise with it. That’s not the attitude Jesus wants us to have. Because when you think about what he gave up, do you think you said well, they’re just going to mess it up? There’s gonna take my grace. They’re gonna continue to do what they want to do. Now he freely gave to us knowing we were going to mess it up, knowing we’re going to take advantage of his grace. And he gave it anyways.
So here’s the attitude, though, is we need to have an edge like Jesus. When Jesus saw the crowds, he had pity he had compassion on them, which was literally gut wrenching. When you hear someone else’s need, does it drive you? Does it move you enough to meet that need? Do you have that? Pity that compassion for them? Or does your heart grow cold first? Or do you become skeptical? Or a cynic in that moment? To others, others pain and their need for material things? Have a Heart make our heart grow cold? Or does it open up because the idea here of no pity means to lock up or to be shut out? Locked up or shut out so a closed heart will always result in closed hands? Okay, a closed heart will always result in closed hand It’s a question like these that scripture helps us with, like, we need these types of questions to realize that God really does care about our attitude and how we give. He cares about that. It’s much more than just an act. It’s our approach to it, as well. So obedience is what we need, right? Jesus calls us to obey Him, but He wants us to come enjoy and worship and celebration and understanding what he has done. How many times the Israelites and Pharisees in particular in the New Testament, called out for their lack of heart behind their obedience. In Amos, God says He despises the Israelites religious festivals, even though they are bringing their sacrifices, their grain offerings, he will not accept them because their hearts do not match up with their actions. The Pharisees in the New Testament are called out for their hypocrisy. In other words, saying and doing something different. Maybe they’re doing the right thing on the outside, but inside it’s for all the wrong reasons, which is why Matthew 23 He calls them whitewashed tombs. Everything looks good on the outside, but there’s dead bones inside. Why? Because it’s a heart issue. Right? It’s a heart issue. That’s what he’s going after. Now, what does pity lead to? What does compassion lead to, it’s more than just the act of giving, it’s getting to know the person and their situation and why they’re in this situation to begin with, what is the actual need that they have. And then it means giving something up, giving something up of our own, whether we’ve been saving up for something, wanting to do something around the house, we say it’s not as important as meeting this need in this time. And so this means pity and compassion lead to a heart of generosity. When your heart opens up, your hands open up, and the more your heart opens up, the more your hands open up, that’s gonna be easier and easier for you to do. That’s what the life of generosity is. And so I have this story that I didn’t find out till recently about my grandpa beer guy. But we had a guy over fixing our garage. And when he was done fixing the garage, or maybe he was installing it to begin with. I said, So how much do we owe you? And he said, nothing. And I said, Okay, well, you’ve heard that before, right? Like, Oh, nothing? No, no. Okay, how much do you really want for the work? And he said nothing. And he said, I’ll tell you why. It’s because your grandpa. I said, Okay. He said, years and years and years ago, at the church that I grew up at, they were helping somebody at a house doing house repairs that she couldn’t do for herself. And he was younger, just kind of starting out. And my grandpa was there serving as well. And he went up to my grandpa, he says, so how much do you think I should charge her for this? And my grandpa’s like you’re going to charge her? He says, Yeah, like, what, how much should I expect or asked for? And my grandpa said, why would you charge her? That takes the fun out of it? Have you ever thought of generosity as fun? of sacrificing your time, and your effort and your money as fun? And I’m thinking like, what did Jesus say it’s busted, more blessed to give than receive? Yeah, giving us fun. Generosity is fun. And that opens up our hearts, and it opens up our hands. But that’s it. That’s a life of generosity. Why would you charge this person, they have a need, meet the need. And so all of that years and years ago led to eventually my grandpa’s grandson getting the free garage door install. All right, not something I asked for. But it’s just amazing to see a life of generosity that impacts other people. He says, Why would I charge you takes the fun out of it. And then we have this question. And this is a hard question. How? If you have no pity, how can the love of God be in that person? When our hearts grow cold, we need to ask that question. How can the love of God be in me when I close my heart, when I lock it up and shut people out who are in need?
The right attitudes are what makes us different from the world. The world gives. Right the world gives the different organizations, different charities and different people. We were recipients of an amazing gift from our baseball team that my son is on. What makes it different from what we do and what the world does. It’s the love of Jesus. It’s the motivation behind it. It’s why we’re giving because when I asked friends who give to certain things, it almost always whether it’s explicit, or it’s veiled comes about how it makes them feel. And that’s why they give and that’s not why we give. We give because we’ve been changed, transformed by the generosity of God toward us. That’s what makes us different, and every single person in here, when you leave today, there needs to be an underlying confidence in Christians in brothers and sisters in Christ, that no matter what happens in life, and the five minutes you leave from here this week or in years from down the road, there should be an underlying confidence that you will always have what you need. Always. No Christian should ever walk out of a church, thinking if something happened, I don’t know what I’m going to do. That’s impossible. According to this book, that cannot happen. Every need met. Nobody should be without their material possessions. We should refuse as a church to ever let that be true of someone. The foundation the attitude must lead to action, then that’s what we have in verse 18. Let’s read that together. Verse 18, says, Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. Aren’t we supposed to love with words and speech? Yes, that’s not what John’s saying. Proverbs says our speech what we say can bring life or death to people. So of course, it’s important, but hear what John is saying, in light of what we just heard. If we just give words and we just give speech, and we don’t meet material needs, and everything we say is useless. So let’s look at this in James chapter two, verses 15 through 17. James says, suppose a brother or sisters without clothes, and daily food, if one of you says them go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs? What good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead? We need actions in truth. It doesn’t say in this passage, you need to do this with your pocket book. Of course, that’s included. But here, what’s amazing about this, this statement at the end here is we have actions in a truce. So what does that mean? What does that mean for you? What does that look like for you in your life? And what does that look like for our church? There aren’t many specifics here. So it means okay, I need I need to do some work I need examine my life and my giving habits and start to think how can this be true me? How can I because just saying to somebody stay warm, and well fed? If we don’t say come get warm in my own my house, and here’s some food for you, then it’s useless. We can’t just say it, we have to do something with it. So what does all this mean for our church? First, with this recommitment campaign that we have, many of you have already recommitted or committed for the first time. Maybe you did your original number, maybe you increased your number. But this passage is not about a campaign. This passage is always here, always helping us to know what a lifestyle of generosity looks like, far after city New is done. So as a church, I want to talk about how we are trying to live out these truths as a church first, and then we’re going to get to our lives in a minute. So the first thing that we see what are different ministries are different ways that this has been true, true for us. And we could go through every ministry, but I just picked a few want to say families, oh my goodness, talking about sacrifice of you know, say families, and what you’re doing and that what you’re bringing somebody into your home, which is supposed to be short term, we all know how that goes. Right? Two months or two years, right, that sacrifice of saying come into my house, my food, my stuff, and this is yours, and helping a family out that is in need, going into unfamiliar places, sometimes far away, to get kids to bring them back in your home, to see your life totally changed in a minute. Having to make phone calls with parents who are trying to see their child, meaning with caseworkers buying the food and the diapers and the formula and all that Oh, and by the way, you don’t get a dime for doing it. That is sacrifice. That is generosity. That is what the church is called to do. And that’s why say families started the church being the church. What about CAP Christians against poverty, we’re trying to meet real tangible needs, not with money, but with credit, counseling, debt help.
And it’s not just words, though it’s action. But it’s somebody sitting across from somebody else and hearing their story, and bringing the love of Jesus into that home, and sharing the love of Jesus with them, telling them what the gospel is. So yes, hopefully pulled out of debt, and then pulled out of spiritual death at the same time. Oh, by the way, it’s at no cost to the client. That’s generosity that’s sharing the love of Jesus with others. And then the fellowship fund, month after month after month, you guys continue to give to the fellowship fund to meet those tangible needs that come in every single month to our church, some short term thing some more long term, and you help to meet those needs again, and again. Only God knows how many people have been blessed by that fellowship fund. Only God knows how many people that saved from going into further debt, or having other financial hardships because of what our church has been able to do. That is generosity. That is sacrifice. Now that’s for us as a church. But individually each one of us In our families, because five years from now, 10 years from now, or maybe this week, you will have an opportunity to show generosity to someone else. So there there are action steps for all of us here today, I have five groups that I want to talk to real quick one, if you are here, or watching online, and you don’t know Jesus, you’re checking this whole thing out, you’ve got some questions about who Jesus is, but this generosity thing sounds pretty good, you’d like to be part of it, you will only understand it, if you understand the love of God first. It only makes sense when you’re standing with Jesus Christ has done what he has gone through, and the love the God has poured out into us. When that happens when we trust Jesus, we start to see that’s what generosity is, we start to see everything in a new light, including our material possessions. So your action step would be to consider Jesus, study him, ask questions, get to know him, and what he has done. The second group, if you’re here today, and you are struggling with pity, you’re struggling with compassion. You know, when you hear of a need, you start to lock up. You don’t want to be asked to give and your heart starts to lock up, which means your hands will lock up as well if that is you, if you struggle giving things away for all the different reasons we discussed, or different reasons. Or maybe you just feel indifferent. Here is the action step for you. Look to Jesus again. Look to Jesus again, and see what he has done. See what he has done what he has called you to do, and then pray for heart of compassion. Because only God can truly do that for us. The third group is those of us who are giving sacrificially, you know that you’re generous with what the Lord has given you. Keep checking your heart. Don’t stop, keep checking your heart, continue to look for ways to give, we can budget giving into our you know, our budget for the year, as a family as an individual. But guess what, there will probably be needs that that say, I don’t have that. So be ready for those needs. And that’s great to have that set aside. But be ready for more needs, because they will come up. So whether that’s a blessing jar that you have or a given envelope, whatever you do at your home, with your family have gift cards on the ready, that you can just send or give to someone right away when you know they are in need of it. And then here’s your action step. Ask this question daily. Who is someone in my life that has a need, I can meet? Who is someone in my life or as a family who is somebody we know that has a need that we can meet? When you do that daily? If you ask that question, it will drastically change your attitude. It will it’ll change your heart, it will keep your heart open, and therefore your hands will be open. And it will keep us attentive to the needs around us. We will be looking for them. We will pay attention better. And they don’t ask for permission, just give. Don’t ask for permission. Do you need anything? Don’t ask that. Just give it to them. Right? Just give it to them. The fourth group, those of you who are hearing this this morning, and you are one of those in need. You’re in need of material possessions in some way. And you don’t let others know.
I understand that. This is not part of our culture. But that’s a pride thing. Because all of us needed Jesus. All of us were bankrupt, dead in the greatest need. So do not be ashamed by saying I have a need because the Bible doesn’t condemn you. So we are not going to condemn you. I’m seeing up here someone who’s received from a fellowship fund before. Let people know when there’s a need. We all need to Jesus and He saved us. And then your action step is to make your need known today. If that’s you let us know today that there is a need because the church wants to meet at the church is called to meet it. And here’s the wonderful thing. When that need is met. You get to give it back. You get to share the generosity that you’ve experienced. And then kids, kids, teenagers, those just starting out with their first job. adults too, because we need to listen to this. Maybe some person learn to be reminded of in Acts 20 Verse 35, Paul says that Jesus said It is more blessed to give than receive. Here’s some truth for you guys. You will never regret giving away to someone else. But you will probably regret spending money on things for yourself at some point okay. Money will not give you lasting happiness. But giving things away can. Okay giving things away can. You don’t need to be rich, to be generous. Okay, don’t give into the lie. Well, if I had more money, I could be more generous. Most of us have probably said that. Right? Parents have a right at some point, you probably thought this, if I had more money, I could give more. You can give to copper coins. If you don’t have much, that doesn’t matter, but guess what the more rich you get, if you’re not giving now, you’re not going to give when you get to that point. That’s just the truth, we have to be faithful with the little that we have. So if you get an allowance of $1. That’s where you can be generous with. Right? That’s where you can be generous with. And I want you guys to know this. And then look to Jesus and say, What did he give me? And ask that question a lot. What did he give me? What did he sacrifice, because that will change your life, and it will change how you give. If we leave here today, and we live out these truths, it will look foolish to the world. It will, it will certainly not fall within the wisdom of the world. But thankfully we follow the wisdom of God. And the wisdom of God was most clearly seen in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who to the world that was foolish to lay down your life. That is until he rose from the dead and defeated sin and death. And give us all life if we trust in Him. So it may look foolish to the world. But it is the wisest thing we could do. One more thing about generosity. Do you think for a moment, Jesus Christ, regrets what he gave up? Do you think for a second, he would go back and make a different choice? No, because it was love that led to the cross. And his love is always there. It wasn’t because whether these people deserve it or not, because we don’t. It wasn’t because he had to because he didn’t. It was because of his love. So he would never go back and take that back and make a different choice. The evidence of his love was in his selfless generosity to you and to me, and therefore we should lay down our lives for our brothers and our sisters. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you gave us your life. We sit here today knowing we do not deserve it. Nothing we could do to earn it. But yet you looked at us. You looked at us and you said I love them. And that love led you to give up your life for us. If for any reason, Lord, we are not being generous. We are not giving or sacrificing to others. We know that the first place we need to start as a right understanding of who you are. And what you’ve done for us will help us to see that today. Help us to see it as we take this bread and this cup. Help our hearts to catch up with our obedience and change us open our hearts, open our hands, for the good of others and for your glory. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.Amen.