What's up church? Let's celebrate all that we just saw. And man, super year, I, I gotta tell you, man, I'm so thankful. I hope you had an incredible Thanksgiving, family, food, football, all the things, and I, I gotta do this. I, you know, I encourage you.

Last week I talked about, hey, share with someone that you're thankful and be specific. And I, I wanna do that today. And I hope to just kinda model some things to you. I need you to know, man, I am so thankful for my wife and, uh, this year, this summer will be our 20th, uh, anniversary. And so that's a big deal for us.

And this has been a year of a lot of change. Uh, my oldest got his driver's license. My youngest is almost done with middle school and she doesn't just love change. And it's been a great, great year. She's the glue for our family.

I'm thankful for my children. And I've got two kids. I have Mac and Rosie, and I don't know if you know this, but I think being a preacher's kid is as bad as it sounds, okay? I am just telling you. And, uh, but man, I'm so, I'm so thankful for them.

I want you to know, I'm, I'm thankful for you and I'm thankful that this is our church home. Uh, man, I'm thankful for a year where we've gone through some change. You have been so faithful. I mean, you have opened up your home on Wednesday night. You have showed up for a house church on Wednesday night into a home you've never been in before.

You have stepped in this year to take on new roles and to lead. You have invited people. I mean, you can look up and down the road and go, oh, I, I invite, I met somebody last week that I invited from Lowe's and it made my year. I mean, you have invited folks you've given we're right where we were last year when it comes to finances. And you've been so faithful to give, you've taken on new roles this year.

And I just need you to, I need to say to you, I'm thankful. One of the things I'm incredibly thankful for is what's coming up next Saturday at all of our campuses with the Christmas store. And I'm just telling you, I have watched you, 'cause I've been to some of other our campuses and I've, I've watched you at every campus. We're doing this at every campus you've walked in with all of these gifts. I mean, you have walked in on Sunday morning looking like Santa Claus with chapter books or with pajamas or with bikes.

And so get this next Saturday, we're gonna have over 300 people serving. You have given where all of the needs are met plus more. And next Saturday, over 230 kids will come and their families will get to shop for free. So let's celebrate that because you've given in incredible ways. Yeah.

So let's do this. Let's start off, let's pray for that next Saturday. Let's pray together. God, I thank you for a church that gets outside of these walls. I thank you for the schools that are gonna be blessed.

God, I thank you for the families and the teachers that have connected us with kids that are in need. And God, I thank you that we get to step in. I thank you for a church that's generous. God, I thank you for families that are willing to come and to serve and to rap and to keep kids. But God, our prayer, our hope is that this next Saturday will be the beginning of families getting connected to a local church.

And this would be our chance to not only meet needs, but God, to connect relationally and to see them become part of the venture family. And so, God, we pray that in your son's name. And it's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Alright, guys, we're in, we're in week two of a series that we've simply called Be Generous. And I'm gonna take you to a church that I'm just telling you. Now, listen, I, I've shared with you some ways that, that we're being generous, but this church we're gonna study today, man, they got it. And they got it to a way that's probably gonna challenge you. And I'm gonna tell you if I've been reading this, it's challenged me.

And so I want you to join me. We're in Second Corinthians, believe it or not. We know there's more than just the Book of Galatians. 'Cause we've been in Galatians for like six or seven weeks. And so we're gonna make it to a new book.

And so today we're in second Corinthians. Go ahead and find that. If you've got your Bibles with you, you can join us on the app. And we're gonna start in chapter eight. I'll show you some things about giving, and I just want you to read this kind of with an open mind and begin to kinda lay this example up against our example.

And let's just see if there's some areas that we can be challenged in. Okay? Uh, here we go. Go lay. Uh, second, I'm gonna say Galatians second Corinthians eight, starting in verse one says, and now brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.

Now that word grace can be generosity, it can be translated in several different words right there. But that, that the generosity of this church in Macedonian verse two, out of the most severe trial, they're overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. Now let's, let's talk about that little sentence because that is a strange formula for generosity. Did you catch that? Like, I remember, I remember in, in science in ninth grade science, in, in, in, in, uh, chemistry class.

And you had these, these, I think they're called beacons. And you put a little something in this one, you put a little bit in this one, and then you put it on the, on the, on the burner, and you poured it all in there, and you got a reaction. Like, if you put this in there and you put this in there, this is gonna happen. I remember those experiments they kind of drew me in, had on your goggles, well, look, look at the formula for giving from this church here. Here's God's formula.

Forgiving says, if you're, if you're in a severe trial plus a little bit of overflowing joy, and here's, here's the one that kind of surprised me the most, plus extreme poverty equaled rich generosity. I, when I read that, I thought, that's not the way that I think about giving. Because when I hear about giving, here's what I do. I, my mind goes to giving capacity. And if I'm like you and I'm sitting where you are, I start looking down the road like, oh, oh, good, he's here today.

Oh, whoa, whoa, I know this one. They got some capacity. Oh, there's a doctor, boom. And I, my mind starts to go like, oh, oh, there's a business owner. Oh, oh, oh, this guy, this guy's, he, he, he could give.

And I start evaluating people on these different circumstances and I start thinking, oh, well this one's here. And, and they're in a place where I bet they could give. But when I look at this text and I examine this church, I think that's the wrong way to look at it. See, I think giving is, is it, it's not a, it is just a heart. It's a condition of the heart.

It's not about circumstances. I wanna make it about circumstances. But according to this formula, it's more of a habit. It's more of a seed that's in you. It's more of a, like a cause and effect.

And, and so I was really convicted right outta the gate from that first little part because I've thought like, Hey, listen, when I start making 40,000, when I get up to 61 day, if I could make a hundred thousand, then at that stage, that's the place where I have enough to begin to give. But the text is really different. It, it's more about a seed that's planted in you. It's more of a cause and effect. Like, because God has given so much to this church in Macedonia, because God has given so much to venture even out of extreme poverty, they began this habit.

There was this seed in them that because God loved them, because God gave to them, they gave back. It was a condition of the heart. It was a condition of the heart. Keep going with me. Let's get to verse three.

So as for I testify that this is crazy for I testified that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. Okay? So it's a privilege to give and they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us, keeping with God's will skip down to verse seven. But just as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnesty and in your love for us, see that you also excel in this what this grace race of giving. Now, let's go back up and look at verse four, because when you kind of fly through that, you almost miss this because this is just not the way that I've thought about giving.

Maybe maybe you've thought this before, but this is, this is challenging to me. Verse four, they urgently pleaded for us to give them this privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. And then that last part, they exceeded our expectations. See, God's mindset on giving is so different. Like we feel like we've, we've got to give this text says, Hey, it's a privilege to get to give.

They pleaded with us for the chance this church in Macedonia heard about all that was going on. And they said, no, no, we want to be a part. Listen, when I when I read that, you may be thinking, man, we're not there yet. I want, I wanna I wanna push back on you a little bit because I have seen you do exactly that. I have had four different, three different house churches and, and at least one individual just this morning ask me, can I still give towards the Christmas store?

You have, have called and said, Hey, have we got all of our needs met? Because I wanna be sure that everyone that comes to the Christmas store gets what they need. Like you have begged us, you have pleaded with us to say, we wanna be a part of this. It's a privilege to give. And I start thinking, where does that come from?

I mean, like, how do you, how do you, how do you have that in you? Like if, if you read that and you go, man, I've just never looked at giving that way. I'm not sure that's in me. And then I found the, I've kind of found the formula. Like if you, if you want to go from like, have to give to get to give here, here's where it changes.

It's in, it's in, it's in, uh, I think it's verse five. You see that right there where it says, and they exceeded our expectations. Here's the, here's the secret formula they gave themselves, first of all, to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. You see it giving starts in our hearts. And this church first gave their heart to the Lord.

And once they did that, all of a sudden things were different. And and you're like that because I saw it in the Christmas store. I also see it with you. I love this with some of you. We'll go out, we'll go out to eat and, and, and we'll be sitting somewhere eating and, and there'll come time to give a tip.

And I, I would kinda be honest with you, I've never waited tables, never been a bus busboy. I I've never worked at Sonic. I've, I've, I've never worked at a, like a nice, not that sonic's not, but a nice restaurant and waited tables. And so I've never gone up and down based on someone's tip. But some of you have.

And when I sit down with some of you that have been a waiter before and you've had to depend on tips, you tip better than me because you know what it's like, like it's been firsthand for you. You remember when all of a sudden, man, you got that tip and it made, it made an impact on you. And so now you tip bigger than me because it's what, it's personal. 'Cause you remember, you remember what it was like, you remember what it felt like. And this church is saying, if you wanna grow in your generosity, it starts in your heart.

If you'll understand just how much I love you, just how much I've given to you, if you could trust me in such a way that you would begin to hold onto things a little bit more loosely because you know that I've got you, then you'll begin to be more generous because it becomes personal, because you know that God is in control than he is with you. Now, let's keep going, keep going. We're down to verse 10. Now, this is pretty cool too because some of you, when giving comes up, you just begin to feel shameful. You begin to feel guilty.

But let's see if that's biblical. Watch this. Let's get to verse 10. And, and here's my advice, here's my advice about what is best for you in this matter. Alright?

Tell it to us Last year you were the first not only to give, but also to have the desire to do so. Okay? So again, it's a hard issue. Now, finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it. So he's saying, Hey, stay faithful.

Many of you have been so faithful, he saying Don't stop, stay faithful according to your means. Okay? Verse 12, for if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has not, according to what one does not have. See, generosity isn't about having enough to give, it's about being willing to give. Oh man, this is a big statement.

Come on, I need you to feel this with me because I don't want you to walk outta your feeling guilty. I don't want you to walk outta here with your head down, kind of shameful. I don't want you to walk outta here in a place where, man, I just don't have capacity to give. I want you to walk outta here more understanding God's love and his grace for you. And then to begin to see your heart open up to say, God, I'm gonna trust you and take a little baby step in giving back my time and giving back my, my talent and giving back a portion of my treasure because my heart is willing.

I trust you with this. I see what you've done in my life and now it's a reflection of that I want to give back. Now. Now here's, I love the second part of this little message because, uh, we've seen really clearly a church that we wanna be like, but I, I wanna now just share a little bit of our why. And I love that question because we ask that a lot like this generation ask you a lot.

Like, Hey, tell me about your why. Like, I understand you're in business. Why are you in business? Hey, I understand you're in education. Why'd you choose education?

Hey, look, you're, you're a pastor. Gimme your why. And it's such a great question, but I want to give you my why when it comes to giving. Here's the first one. Why we give, we give because it's more blessed to give than to receive.

Alright? Now, let's go back. Here's the verse. Acts 2035. It is more blessed to give than it is to receive.

Now when I first hear that you, you guys remember the commercial where it was like, I think it was typically like a little family or a married couple and they would disagree on something and, and, and one of 'em would throw a flag and then the commercial goes back to in time. And I feel like if you were to, if I were to throw a flag on that and go back and be like, Craig, you're telling me you don't like to receive things. I'm not saying that like, I mean, I, I I love to receive things, but what I am telling you is I, I have experienced firsthand that it is more of a blessing to me when I get to give someone something than to receive lots of examples of this real simple one. Real simple one, Matt, that was leading worship today over here at Lincoln Road. Matt Smith, you know Matt, Matt bought a new house not long ago over near me, and he was doing a little bit of yard work and he called me and he asked me if he could borrow my chainsaw.

It meant so much to me, one that he would call me for a chainsaw. I thought that was a huge compliment, but it hit me like, like you mean I have something that you're in need of? And now I have the chance to hold it loosely and, and, and, and let you borrow it. Oh, it was so much fun. He pulled up in my driveway.

He had his, he had jack with him that day, his little boy. And I got to bring my chainsaw out and put it in his car and give him a little oil and just talk about, man, I can't wait to hear how it goes and I can't wait for him to come back. And I met him in the driveway and I got to hear the story about the trees that he cut down and can't wait for him to invite me to come over to his backyard now and eat with him. You can invite me anytime. But it was so fun to watch and see.

I mean, I was a part of this through my giving. You've done this, you've shown up at restaurants and you've looked over there and you've seen a little couple that reminds you of you and you, I remember those days and, and you got up there to, to pay their bill for 'em. And you've never felt so good walking out of a Mexican restaurant then when you paid for someone else's meal. I mean, you've, you've given your time that way. Like you've walked into a KXP classroom and you've looked in there and gone, there's so many kids in this room.

Hold on, I'm gonna join you today and I'm just gonna serve today. And you've walked down and you've gone, I should be exhausted, but I'm full. You've seen a neighbor like just right down the street and, and and, and they've got kids. And you remember when your kids were that age and you have just sat and listened to that mama and you prayed for her and all of a sudden you were full. When you give your time, when you give your talent, so many of you have stepped in.

Can I tell you the biggest need we have at our church right now? You're saying, oh, I'm sure it's money. You're preaching on money, it's house church pastors, you guys are giving faithfully. The biggest need we have right now is to create more house churches. And to do that, we have to have those that have the gift of leadership that would say, I give my talent, let me lead.

And when you do that, man, you connect with God's heart because God gives, he gave his son. And so you're so full when you do that. It's better to give than it is to receive. Number two, we give because we play a, a part in the greatest mission of all. You remember the election just not long ago and, and one of the rallies, there was an assassination attempt and then candidate Trump, right?

Uh, the end of that week, the Republican party raised more money. It was historic because people saw a need and they gave Democratic party. Same thing when they changed the ticket and Biden got off the ticket and knew came in, Kamala came in, they raised more money. It was historic because people saw a need and they gave towards it. What about our need?

What about this mission that we have? Could you see a need in the local church and go, this is the mission I want to give to. This is the one. Think about what Jesus told Peter. I love this.

This is in Matthew 1618. He says, and also I say to you that you are Peter. He's talking to us. Hey, hey, I'm saying to you, I'm saying to you, you are Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my church.

And the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 2000 years ago, Jesus said, this is an opportunity for you to invest in something that matters. Peter, I'm gonna build this thing, but I'm gonna use your gifts. I'm, I'm gonna use your time. I'm gonna use your talents and treasure.

And he's saying the same thing to us. This investment, this place you show up on Sundays, this place you drop your kids off to this place that gathers together and shares meal. This place that you call in with a prayer request and they pray for and carry your needs. That's the place I want you to invest in. Peter, Craig, Chad, this is the one in your community.

This is where God's put you and listen, the state of the church, I wanna share this with you because this is kind of humbling. You need to know this. God's favor is on us here. Like what God's doing it, it's so different than what's happening in America because 1500 pastors leave ministry each month. 4,000 new churches start each year.

You ready? 7,000 churches close their doors each year. It's a net negative. But yet you, me, we're a part of something that's, that's bearing fruit. We've got a campus in Stone County that's watching right now.

They're running outta seats Next year. We're gonna have to step into how do we, how do we create more seats? Almost every Sunday you're at a place where you're getting to see people baptized, where they're giving their life to Christ. What I'm telling you is what you're investing in is matters. And it's, it's reaching people.

You get in the fight, you connect with people all over the world when you give towards this mission. Number three, we give because we wanna be an example to our children. I, I, both Katie and I have such unique stories in that we, we were raised in church and both of us can remember sitting in a pew. It wasn't a chair, it was a pew. And we remember watching our parents give, it planted a seed in us.

And, and I wish, I wish this was, I, I wish it worked like this for like lust or, or, or greed or, or pride or honesty that you could just, that you could just kind of do away with that by, by. But it's different with generosity. Like your kids will remember that. It's a way to flip a switch in them to say, this is the way we handle our money. Watch how we do this.

Uh, watch this habit, this seed that I'm gonna plant with you really, really little. I want you to see me drop money in this because we're giving towards something that's bigger than just us. It's a perspective. It's one of the biggest fears I have about being a parent. And I think it's because it's personal.

Like I don't want the world to get my heart. And I see what it looks like when this unhealthy part of me comes out with this love for money or for the world. But, but, but I know this. If I can begin to model to them, Hey, generosity looks like this, you have a chance to be a part of something bigger. Look, look at this quote.

I'm reading this book Fighting Shadows. It's a great book, but it's a powerful quote. When Christian men and women stop caring about God's kingdom and mission and reduce our vision to personal wellbeing and wealth, the church is doomed. A man must live for more than himself and for his stuff. Alright?

Here's the fourth reason why I give, why we give. We give because giving God's our hearts, this is biblical, uh, Matthew 6 21 for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also, I see this, have a brand new little puppy, uh, Luna, and she's a golden retriever. And there's only one thing that kind of guides Luna right now, and it's a little treat. And you give the little treat, she'll go to the bathroom, you give the treat, she'll follow you everywhere you go. And this text, what we just read, says, your money's like that.

It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you need to know this. It's not neutral, it's powerful. Your time is powerful. Your talents, man, they're powerful gifts. But he says, what you do with your money, you know this, like when you put all your money towards a sport, you get into it like, we don't miss practice because we're giving towards practice.

Like we don't miss the game because we bought the tickets. Giving kinda guides your heart. Like if you wanna get ahead of this, when you give your heart to God, it guides you. But also the flip side is true too. Both end.

When you give your money somewhere, all of a sudden you start caring, you start finishing the round of 18 because you paid to play 18. We're gonna go on the hunt because we paid for the hunt. Our heart's there. It's a way to guide your heart is by giving. I I love this one and this one hurts my, my heart a little bit because I'm, I'm working on this number five and there's only six we give because it's not mine to keep.

Look at here's, here's the passage, Genesis two 15. It says, the Lord God took the man and he put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. Now, did he ever say in that verse, he gave him all those things? It says no, he entrusted him with this garden to, to work it and to keep it. It's, it's a passage that talks about stewardship, not ownership.

Here, here's what it looks like. Okay? This is where my Chick-fil-A comes in to play. Uh, we love Chick-fil-A it's kinda the only thing we eat is Christian chicken. Uh, it just happens to be that way.

And every time we go through the line, I get a big bag like this. I saw some of you at Chick-fil-A this week, and I have a 16-year-old. So it starts out in the backseat nuggets and sandwich takes it down. You can't feed enough Chick-fil-A to a 16-year-old. Uh, my 13-year-old, she gets nuggets, okay?

Here's where it gets interesting. My wife and I get the soup chicken tortilla soup, and we were on a road trip and I I passed the bag back to my kids, and then she took her Chick-fil-A and I got my Chick-fil-A okay? We both got soup. And then here's the part that got interesting are the, the crunchies. I love the crunchies.

And so all the crunchies that they gave me, I poured 'em all in mine. And then Katie got in the car and she opened up her soup and she said, where's my crunchy? And here's my quote, because this is, this is deeply, uh, inspirational to you. Here's my quote. Oh, I thought it was all for me.

I I thought it was all for me. You mean there was some things in this bag, God, that you entrusted me with that you, you had in mind? That I give back to you? You mean it wasn't just all for my consumption. You mean the the time that you gave me, it wasn't just about what was good for me.

You mean those talents that you gave me? The way that you inspired me to encourage other people and to sit and need a need of people and to carry their burdens and to pray for them. You mean that wasn't just meant to be about me? You, you mean the the resources, the, the, the treasure that you gave me because you've gifted me and you put me in a place to succeed, and you entrusted me with all these things. You mean I was supposed to share those things?

That's one of the reasons we give is because it's, it's not all for us. Here's the last one here. Here's number six. And you're gonna know this one we give because we want to hear well done. My good and faithful servant.

Why don't you want to hear that one day? I mean, don't you wanna hear that one day when you get into heaven and, and you're able to stand in front of Jesus and, and for him to look at you and say, well done. The way that you used your time, God, you were so faithful from, with, with you were so faithful. Well, well done with your man. I, I gifted you to be such a gifted attorney, but you used it to help your church in ways that they'll, people will never even know.

Oh, man, I gave you that gift of empathy to sit next to people and to hear them and to carry them. I made you a helper and you serve people so well. What, what about the part about well done with those good looks? Just make sure you were listening. Well done with that treasure.

Oh, man, it it, you, you connected with me in so many powerful ways when you began to let go and you began to give, because I gave, I love this quote. Here's the last thing, and, and, and we're there. This, this is a powerful quote from CS Lewis. Most all the CS Lewis's quotes are powerful. My prayer is that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I am out of the fight.

Couldn't you love that to be the case? Listen, I'm, I'm just, I'm challenging you today to get in the fight with us. That's why we've, that's why we've connected with these local missions partners because they're in the fight. And, and, and I'm asking you to say, Hey, listen, I, would you be able to kind of breathe deep and relax, not outta guilt or shame, but out of a joyful heart, reflect back and say, man, listen, I'm, I'm, I'm in the fight because this, this is the mission that Jesus gave us. This is the rock.

This is the church. This is his model. This is his idea. And then I, I want to hear well done, my good and and faithful Servant. So listen today, don't walk outta here with your head down.

Don't walk outta here feeling shame. Walk outta here feeling hopeful and understanding how much God's given you. And now you get this opportunity to be in the game, to be in the fight. Let me pray for you. God, I I thank you that God, you've blessed us.

I mean, we hear about pastors that are leaving the ministry and we hear about churches that are closing the doors and we're trying to open more doors and we're running outta seats and we're getting to celebrate discipleship. God, I thank you for a church that's practicing generosity in so many ways. God, thank you for the privilege of getting to give Help. Change my perspective. God, I'm, I'm reluctant in this.

I'm stubborn in this. I, I see my hands a little bit more closed than open. And God, I wanna move closer. I wanna understand your heart to give God. You gave everything.

You gave your life. You saw a need, and you met a need. God, you stepped in and you commanded us, said, Hey, God, I want you to be a good steward. I've entrusted you. God, thank you for entrusting me with so much.

Help me one day begin to hear well done. Help me be in the fight. Help me hold on loosely. God, help me establish treasures in heaven. God, I thank you for your life.

I thank you for your grace. I thank you for the way that you see us. And God, I thank you for giving. It's in your name, we pray. Amen.