Hey, welcome to One and All.

We're so glad that you are here.

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Well, hello, one and all.

It is great to be with you all again.

Hello to all of our campuses.

I hope that you all had an awesome 4th of July.

Did you have a good 4th of July?

You know, we had, I'm from Kentucky, and I grew up in Ohio, and it's very different than you all with your 4th of July, because, I mean, everything, you can shoot fireworks off in your kitchen in Kentucky, all right?

You can shoot them off whenever you want, and so it's a little bit of a different state than it is in California.

And I understand here it's a little bit different because each city has its own rules, which is probably a good thing.

We probably should.

Do that in Kentucky as well.

But I grew up in Ohio, and back when I was a kid, I mean, you could do fireworks all you wanted to.

And it was like my parents were extremely overprotective.

I had the most overprotective parents in the world.

I mean, I'd be playing with a beach ball, and my mom would say, hey, be careful.

That thing might poke your eye out.

it's a beach ball.

Come on, mom, right?

But they got away from that, and the concept of fireworks was rather than, you know, poking around, you blow your eyes out, correct?

And so in our backyard, though, we didn't have the fireworks that everybody else had.

I mean, our neighbors, their backyard bottle rockets, things flying up looked like Disney World or Knott's Berry Farm at closing time, you know, right there in their backyard, and I'd be there with my brother, you know, with our sparklers.

Make a circle with me, Jeff.

Okay.

All right.

Hey.

Oh, it went out, you know, and that was kind of our life.

So we had a great 4th of July in Kentucky.

And I actually, I almost showed you video footage of just how different it is because I had, I mean, you would think it was at Disney World, but it was within three houses this direction, three houses this way, and three houses that way.

And it's just kind of how it is.

But tonight, what I want to talk with you all about.

is something that hopefully will just skyrocket just like a firework in your heart.

And it's something that we've been talking about in this generosity series.

And I titled this sermon, A Unique But Guaranteed Way to Discover Joy.

I mean, I know there are a lot of preachers that don't like to talk about money and don't like to talk about giving or don't like to talk about finances, but I think just the opposite.

And Jesus spoke more about money and about possessions than any other topic.

And I firmly believe that biblical teaching on this topic can inspire you and it can skyrocket in your life and it can encourage you.

And I don't want you to miss out on the blessing that comes with generosity and the joy that can be yours by becoming a person of generosity with the church and more importantly, just in your everyday life.

Just being a person of generosity.

I've loved this series.

I'm wrapping it up this weekend.

But Jeff's first two just really got us to look at our priorities.

And it also talked a whole lot about how we don't realize it, and we would never say it, but how wealthy we are and how rich we are as Americans.

And I know we tend to compare ourselves always to somebody who has more than we have.

and yet God has given us so much, and anything that has ever been written in God's word about wealth or about having a lot of possessions, I mean, it's back at the time when there was no air conditioning.

They didn't have any cars.

All the things that we have, they didn't have a smartphone.

They didn't have any of those things, and yet we have all those things.

just at the drop of a hat.

There are only a handful of places in the New Testament outside of the four gospels where we have Jesus'words quoted for us.

And one of them is in Acts chapter 20.

I'm just going to hit this quickly, so don't feel like you have to turn to it.

But Acts chapter 20, verse 35.

And it says, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Now, one way to define that word blessed is to say it's a joy that the world can't take away.

Wow, that's saying a whole lot.

It's a more joyful experience to give than to get.

It's a more fulfilling life when you are generous than when you are stingy.

Now, I'm not talking about being wasteful or frivolous, but I'm talking about holding onto the things of this life loosely.

And it is possible to be prudent and wise with your resources while still being loving and lavish.

And so today I'm going to share with you three different truths about giving.

And if you do want to turn to something in your Bible, turn to 2 Corinthians 8.

and we're going to go back and forth between 2 Corinthians 8 and 2 Corinthians 9.

We're just going to kind of go back and forth between those two pages.

And let me kind of give you what the setting is.

Here's the setting of 2 Corinthians.

Here's the background.

The church in Jerusalem was in trouble.

The Jerusalem church was the mother church where it all started on the day of Pentecost.

Members of the fledgling congregation had pulled their resources together.

They were selling their houses, their land to keep the church afloat.

And many of them sold everything they had, and they brought their money, and they brought it to the apostles, and they laid it at their feet, and they said, hey, you give us back what you think we need to live on, and you use the rest of it for ministry.

and God blessed the commitment of those faithful few in the Jerusalem church, and the church began to explode in growth, and missionaries were sent, and the churches began to grow in cities all over the world, but now when 2 Corinthians is written, the mother church in Jerusalem is starting to struggle a bit.

Because harsh persecution had rocked the church there in Jerusalem.

Bad economic times caused by a severe famine had drained them of their remaining resources.

And so Christianity's most well-known missionary, the Apostle Paul, stepped in.

And he begins organizing basically a capital campaign for the church there in Jerusalem.

And he first went to his old friends all throughout the Macedonian region.

Churches in towns like Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea.

Now, Macedonia was not a wealthy area.

In fact, it was rather poor.

But the faith of the Macedonian people was legendary.

And when Paul told them of the need in Jerusalem, the Macedonians, even in their own poverty, gave generously.

And Paul was thrilled by their sacrifice.

but the money wasn't just enough.

And so in his letter to the church in Corinth, he's going to make an appeal to them to ask them for some help.

Now, Corinth was a very wealthy town and many of the members of the Corinthian church had the means to make a significant contribution.

But they weren't as strong in their faith as the Macedonian people had been.

And Paul wondered if they would really capture the vision of what God could do through them.

So he starts off his appeal by telling them of the generosity of the poverty stricken people in Macedonia.

And he uses their example to inspire the Corinthians to be generous.

So three truths about giving.

Here's truth number one.

God will give you the opportunities to give.

He just will.

There's always another appeal letter.

There's always a need that you hear of.

There's always someone that you can be helping.

There's always a ministry.

There's always something that the church will be doing.

You will have opportunities to support this church and to sustain it and to spread the gospel message of the love of Christ throughout this region, nationally, globally, everywhere.

And additionally, you have opportunities to do so in your everyday life with people who are in need and with other ministries and organizations.

So here's where Paul starts to tell the Corinthians about the Macedonians and their generosity.

We start with 2 Corinthians 8, verses 2 through 4.

In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty, talking about the Macedonians, welled up in rich generosity.

For I testify 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 the service to the Lord's people.

So perhaps since they didn't have much, maybe Paul and his friends weren't going to ask them to participate in a love offering or supporting the ministry or giving to that capital campaign.

You know, he was just going to give them a free pass because they didn't have a whole lot.

but look at verse five.

It says, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God.

Paul says that they urgently pleaded for the opportunity to be able to give.

That's the right order to give yourself first to the Lord and then the gifts come after that.

Because Lord, when you say, Lord, I surrender everything to you.

Well, my time, my talent, my treasure, my testimony, after you give yourself to him, this isn't that big of a deal.

Because when you've surrendered yourself to him and say, I belong to you, then you realize that this doesn't belong to you.

It's entrusted to you.

what are you going to do with it?

If you have the perspective that everything belongs to God, then you realize it's not yours in the first place.

And so you begin to view yourself more as a manager and not as an owner.

You're working on behalf of him to share what he's blessed you with.

You're more of a pass-through.

You're more of a vessel.

You can be a blessing to others.

A couple of summers ago, I was at the home of one of my best friends, and he lives a long ways away from me.

And after dinner, he gets up and he takes me in the room.

He says, hey, hey, come with me.

And he takes me in this room, and he says, I want you to see what I got.

And right there in front of me is this massage chair.

And I'm like, oh, wow.

He said, you cannot leave until you've spent 15 minutes in that.

I said, you don't need to twist my arm, you know?

And so I sat down in it and when I woke back up, I looked at him and I said, I said, I love your chair.

I came back out in the kitchen.

I was telling my whole family about it.

I said, oh it's awesome.

And he was so excited.

The more excited I got, I could tell the more excited he got because he just wanted somebody else to enjoy what he had.

Well, that was in August.

Fast forward a few months to the day after Christmas.

He calls me up on the phone, and we talk regularly.

But after a couple minutes, he said, hey, he said, I just got a notification on my phone.

He said something was delivered.

I don't want you to back over it.

So he's always sending me books or something.

So I said, I'll go get it now while I'm still talking to him.

I go out to my garage.

When I open the door to the garage, there's this humongous truck out there.

and coming down on this lift is this huge box, and my wife is there like Vanna White, you know, going like this, and my son is celebrating, and he's going crazy, and I said to my buddy on the phone, I said, you didn't.

He said, I did.

I was blown away.

I mean, I just couldn't believe it.

I said, you've got to be kidding me.

I said, this is amazing.

And here's this box coming down, and everybody's so excited.

And I'll be honest with you.

When I saw that thing coming down, I got a lump in my throat, and I got a tear in my eye.

You give me a massage chair, I will cry.

All right?

And finally, I was able to speak, and I said to my buddy, I said, dude, I said, I can't accept it.

And he said, yes, you can.

And I said, okay.

Ah, well, you know.

And the whole rest of the day, I mean, I just kept saying, he is so generous.

He is so generous.

Every night that week.

we videotaped our family, a different person in the chair, and we made a video for him, and we sent it to him every single night.

And I just said, he's so generous.

And finally, my son said, hey, he said, I helped out too.

I said, oh, I'm so sorry.

I said, I didn't know you chipped in.

I said, what did you give?

He said, I didn't give anything.

I said, I gave him your address.

that doesn't count, all right?

But that chair, if you came to my house, that chair is the most popular chair in our house.

We have a couple's Bible study on Wednesday night, okay?

People, they come in the front door.

I'm like, hey, they walk right past me.

They go to see if the chair's empty.

They all just, they head right there.

And the next time I flew out to where my buddy lives, I saw him in person.

I said, hey, I said, I cannot thank you enough for that.

I said, by the way, I love your car.

Please don't judge me.

Don't judge me.

You were thinking it.

I know you were thinking it.

All right.

You would have done the same thing.

No, I didn't say that.

I thought it, but I didn't say it.

All right.

but here's what I'm saying.

God will give you opportunities to give to people.

So be on the lookout for those opportunities.

You'll have one in the next 24 hours.

I promise you, you will have an opportunity in the next 24 hours.

Well, here's the second truth.

God will see to it that you reap what you sow.

you're going to reap what it is that you sow.

It's the way it works in his economy of things.

Look at the next page over in 2 Corinthians 9.

We're going to look at verse 6.

Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

no generous individual ever regrets giving rather than keeping, sharing rather than hoarding, because they know that they're sowing seeds.

The Christ follower desires to hold on to the things of this world loosely.

And it's not wrong to have things, especially if you use them to advance the gospel or show the love of Jesus.

Jeff talked about that a little bit from that passage in 1 Timothy chapter 6.

But it's one of those things where we have to use that which God has given to us.

The Bible gives us numerous examples and names of God's faithful people who had plenty of stuff.

They had a lot of wealth.

They just made certain that the stuff didn't have them.

I'm not talking about a health and wealth gospel where if you give to the Lord, well, he's obligated to make you rich financially.

That's not what I'm talking about, all right?

That's not what Paul is talking about either.

God's blessing can come in a variety of forms.

He might increase your income.

He might sustain your household appliances.

He might make it to where there are others who pass things along to you because they've heard of your generosity.

There's a million different ways that God can do it, but he will do it in his way, in his time.

Look back at 2 Corinthians 8.

We're gonna go back a page.

Verse seven.

I love this.

But since you excel in everything, he's talking to the church in Corinth, in faith and speech and knowledge and complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you, see also that you also excel in this grace of giving.

So you're not going to get out of the park in all these areas, but you know what?

What about giving?

where it really comes down to showing whether or not you really do trust that God is in control.

I've been around a lot of deathbeds and hospitals and homes and 40 years of ministry.

I've heard a lot of regrets when a person was about to die.

I've never heard someone say, I gave away more than I should have.

I gave too much.

Toward the end of my granddad's life, he had a season where he became quite selfish when it came to money and possessions.

He was in an unhealthy pattern of making some very unwise choices.

My grandmother had passed away a couple of years before.

My granddad decided after a while that he would take all the farm equipment, family furniture, my grandmother's belongings, and he would sell them at a public auction to provide cash for some luxuries that he wanted.

Nothing wrong with having a public auction, but it was just what he was doing with the money that he got that was just so frustrating to every one of his friends and family.

And why his friends tried to talk some sense into him.

but nothing would dissuade him.

And as you can imagine, the day of the auction was very emotional for the family, but it was also emotional for this entire small town seeing these family items displayed.

I later learned that my grandfather's five children were given no chance to purchase items beforehand, even those of sentimental value.

I vividly recall my Uncle Phil.

bidding $3 on his wagon from childhood that he had painted his name on this side.

It was a very sad day.

One of the family keepsakes that my mom was quite interested in was a beautiful wedding ring design handmade quilt.

It was my grandmother's favorite quilt, and being the only daughter, my mom really wanted to keep it in the family.

And when she asked her father about it prior to the...

On the day of the auction, my grandfather said to her, you will have a chance to bid on it when everybody else does.

There was a very determined antique dealer there that day who wanted to purchase that quilt so that he could then resell it.

And throughout the course of time, the bidding reached a point beyond my mom's self-imposed spending limit.

And when it did, it was more than she could bear.

And she just withdrew from the bidding, overcome by emotion and wounded by my grandfather's insensitivity.

She just walked out of the auction area.

And the auctioneer continued, and the bids went higher and higher.

But then a very strange scene began to unfold.

As my older brother, Jeff, who was in his mid-20s and had absolutely no money and no earthly interest in quilts, began bidding.

And the bidding went higher and higher and higher.

And several minutes later, the auctioneer had now sold.

They folded up Jeff's purchase, and he carried it out of the auction barn, and he found my mom, and he handed her the quilt.

He said, I love you.

Years later, my brother would say, I spent more than I really had.

I paid more than I probably should have, but I've never regretted buying that quilt.

You know what's cool about that story?

I realized while I was preparing this sermon, on that day that Jeff gave mom that quilt, she was just reaping what she had sown.

You see, all of his life and my life, my brother and I had witnessed my mom's generosity to the church and to others.

For instance, whenever my parents received any unexpected money or if my dad got a bonus at Christmas, any unexpected money, they gave 25% of it immediately.

Before they even gave anything to church, they gave immediately to missionaries or to college students or random people that were in need.

Her entire life, mom was planting seeds of generosity in her sons.

you will always harvest what you've chosen to plant.

Warren Wiersbe said, an open heart cannot maintain a closed fist.

God will give you opportunities to give.

God will see to it that you reap what you sow.

And here's the third biblical principle.

God loves a cheerful giver.

He loves a cheerful giver.

I love this next verse in 2 Corinthians 9.

in verse seven, look at it with me.

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Now the word for cheerful there, you probably know it in its original form, it's the word hilarious.

That's what the word is, hilarious, which is where we get our English word hilarious.

In other words, your cheerful giving is outrageous.

It's counter-cultural.

and yet we're happy to share with others and return to God what already belongs to him.

Back a number of years ago, there was a woman by the name of Hollis Sharp, who lived not very far from here.

And each night she would take her miniature poodle, Jonathan, out for a walk around the neighborhood.

And being a responsible citizen, she always took with her plastic bags.

And she would, if her dog made a mess in someone's yard, she would clean up after Jonathan.

Well, during their walk on the night of November 13th, they were...

almost back home, Jonathan had already done his duty and they were returning home and they were almost there when all of a sudden a mugger jumped out from behind some bushes, shoved Hollis Sharp to the ground, grabbed her plastic bag and ran off with the spoils of his prime.

Although Mrs.

Sharp sustained a broken arm, she still maintained a sense of humor.

She told the police, I only wish I would have had more for him in the bag.

a desire to share more than what you have.

This past week, I read several secular studies that all found the same thing to be true.

There is an incredible correlation between the most generous people and the most joyful people.

And it repeatedly confirms what Bible-believing people already know.

And yet, like so many of Jesus'principles, it sounds counterintuitive.

Now, the Bible speaks of three different kinds of giving.

This will be a review for some of you.

The first type of giving it talks about is that of tithing, right?

Tithing literally means a tenth part.

It means it's talking about giving 10% of what you make to the Lord's work.

And Jeff talked about this a couple weeks ago.

And the strongest command comes back in the book of Malachi, where God himself is speaking.

This is what God says.

It says, will a man rob God and yet you rob me?

But you ask, how do we rob you?

In tithes and offerings?

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.

Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Don't misunderstand this.

This does not say that if you give, you will become rich.

We talked about that earlier.

It doesn't say that your blessings will always be financial.

We talked about that.

But this passage on tithing is the only time in the entire Bible where God ever says for us to test him in anything.

How profound is that?

It's like he is double dog daring you.

to take him at his word and to trust him and to let him prove his sovereignty.

And in the New Testament, Jesus even commands the tithe.

You know, some people say, well, it only talks about that in the Old Testament.

Well, Luke chapter 11, verse 42, woe to you Pharisees, because you give, this is Jesus speaking, woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a 10th of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God.

Listen to this.

you should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

The former is a reference to the tithe.

He's getting on them for how legalistic they are about things, but he doesn't say to stop tithing.

He says, instead, you make certain that you have the bigger matters of the heart, of the law in your hearts, that you care about justice, that you don't neglect those that are in need, that you pass on the love of God.

So Jesus has a perfect opportunity when he's walking the earth to rescind the tithe.

But instead, all throughout the New Testament, we're told to give as we've been blessed.

Well, if you tithe in the Old Testament, but before you have Jesus, what should we do after we have Jesus?

I mean, what does generosity look like?

When we give the first 10% of our income back to the Lord, we make him the priority.

We are acknowledging his lordship and then all seeing God notices that.

Think of it like this.

Tithing is a demonstration of our dependence on the divine.

That's what you do when you tithe to the Lord.

Solomon says in Proverbs chapter three, verse nine, says, honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of your crops.

In other words, this belongs to you.

I want the very first thing that I have to go to you, Lord.

So is there anything in your house?

that actually belongs to God, that you need to return to him.

You know, every dollar that you give to one and all will be used to bring people who are far from God near to him.

And here at one and all, when you and I give, I want you to know that 10% of your gift goes to missions.

You tithe and the church tithes too.

Those monies don't just support international ministries, but also local outreaches, things like God's Pantry.

There's also things that are done with CCP, Chosen Children of Promise, CICM in India, in Zimbabwe, Africa's Development Trust.

And then we have a lot of local outreach events that are supported as well, or things like the toy store at Christmas, or back-to-school backpacks, and a lot of other ways.

Perhaps one of the greatest joys of heaven will be getting to see the eternal fruit, the spiritual impact of your regular disciplined tithing over the years.

And maybe we'll get to see and meet the people who are in heaven as a result of your faithful giving.

And perhaps in heaven, you'll get to see who is in heaven in part because of your faithfulness in that area.

And you'll get to see that return on your investment.

Well, there's another type of giving.

There's tithing, as talked about in the Bible, but there's also free will giving.

What's free will giving?

Well, after the tithe to the church, you'll probably want to add some ministries or some causes that you have a heart for.

perhaps you're passionate about what they do or who they help, and you have something, a burden that God's put on your heart.

Well, those are the ministries that you want to be involved with.

Maybe the church already helps them.

Maybe the church doesn't, but you can help them.

And just like the church in Macedonia was quick to help others out, you can be that person.

And free will giving allows you to be more specific with things that you have that heart for.

You can find things that you have that passion for.

Maybe it's disaster relief.

Maybe it's a pregnancy.

a crisis center.

Maybe it's a new church plant.

Maybe it's the people who are going on mission trips that are coming up in weeks to come.

You know where I've learned the most about free will giving?

It's from joyful Christians who are quick to share what they have with others, whether they have a little or whether they have a lot.

And maybe you could be an example like that to your close friends and within your sphere of influence.

Well, there's one more type of giving that's talked about in the Bible.

We have tithing, we have free will giving, and the third and final one is sacrificial giving.

And I think the easiest way to kind of describe what sacrificial giving would be is there's a story in John chapter 12 where Mary takes this, any of y'all watch The Chosen?

Any of y'all watch The Chosen?

You just saw the episode that shows this of Mary in John 12.

Most people think it was an inheritance that their family had passed down.

It was worth a year's salary.

And she breaks this so it can never be used again.

and she pours it all over Jesus'feet, and she uses her hair and wipes it all over his feet, and it's worth a year's salary.

What a sacrifice.

What a display of love and appreciation.

There are just a handful of times in your lifetime When you will feel compelled or prompted to do something like that, it's just a total stretch.

It might not be worth a year's salary.

I don't know what it will be worth in your own life, but it's something that is so out of the ordinary.

And it's when you just feel that prompting of the Holy Spirit that I've got to step up to the plate.

I've got to do, I don't care what anybody else says.

This is what God's calling me to do.

And it's one of those times when God just takes you out on that limb of faith.

And he says, do you trust me?

Do you trust me?

That might be $100 for you.

It might be $100,000 for you.

The amount doesn't matter.

The sacrifice is what matters.

It's like the major campaign when it all had back in 2018 called the Yes Campaign, is to raise funds for needed renovations to help the launch also of four campuses and the care center.

More recently, it's what you all have been involved with of the purchasing the West Covina campus and that building fund.

And it's things like that where you just I feel like God's calling you to do something, and so you make a gift.

I know there's a lot of you who have not given to that campaign or that fund, and maybe that's what God's going to lay on your heart.

Think of it like this.

I love this quote.

Sacrifice is giving up something that you love for something that you love more.

sacrifice is giving up something you love for something that you love more.

When Jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive, he was describing that type of joy and fulfillment that comes when you just let go and you freely share.

It's a joy you experience when your small group comes together to pay the rent for the next month for someone in your group who's lost their job.

It's the excitement that comes from buying someone's meal and getting out of the restaurant before they know it.

It's the thrill you get from watching your friend unwrap a gift that you know is totally unexpected, but it's just what they wanted.

It's the fulfillment that you derive when someone comes to Christ through a ministry that you support financially.

God loves a cheerful giver.

And so the starting place is to examine our motives.

Okay, why do we give?

Do we want recognition?

Do we want to impress others?

Or when we give, can we really do what the apostle Paul says?

And that is to give not reluctantly, but cheerfully.

And sometimes it's planned and sometimes it's not.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I, we were staying at a hotel for a night in Houston.

And as we were leaving, I asked the gal at the front desk if she would like for us to bring her something back.

And we started doing this a few years ago where when we would leave, if we were going out to eat, a lot of places don't have a restaurant there at the hotel, and we'd just say, hey, you want us to bring you something back?

And sometimes people say, oh, man, that is so kind of you.

I haven't had anything to eat.

That'd be great.

And other times I said, no, no, we're good.

Thanks, thanks.

But I said to this woman, this 40-something lady behind the counter, I said, hey, we're going to get something to eat, which I guess will bring you something back.

She did not hesitate.

she said, I want a Frosty.

And she said, I want some chicken nuggets.

And she said, I want some ranch dressing because I like to dip my chicken nuggets in ranch dressing.

I said, all right.

I said, we'll get it for you.

About the time I got to the door, she hollers and says, don't forget the ranch dressing.

I said, I won't.

Well, we always have fun doing this.

It's kind of like we're out on an adventure for the employees, you know, so we have fun with it.

We came back, and we came walking up to her.

I mean, I was six feet away from the counter, and she said, did you get the ranch dressing?

I said, yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am.

I said, it's all right in there.

And she kind of grunted and said, thanks.

and she dove in and she just started eating her food and we just kind of felt awkward so we just headed back to our hotel room we got back to our hotel room and closed the door and my wife said you know what she didn't seem very grateful at all and we both just kind of unloaded.

It's like, I know, I know, that was crazy.

And she said, you know, it's like she expected us to get it for her.

And I said, I know, and we were going to pay for it all the time.

She didn't even bother to even offer.

And then she said, yeah, and you know what?

She said, even before she mumbled her thanks, she wanted to know if we got a ranch dressing for her.

I don't know what we were expecting from her.

I really don't.

I don't know if I was expecting her to walk us to our room and say, You will never know.

You will never know what your generous purchase of this frozen chocolate treat, coupled with this ten-piece pile of poultry, you will never know what this means to me.

In the history of hotels, no weary traveler has ever displayed such generosity, unselfishness, or humility.

Take me to the hotel pool and baptize me.

I don't know what we were expecting, but it wasn't, did you get the ranch dressing?

And the more we analyzed her response or the lack thereof, the more frustrated we both became.

Hey, I don't want to harp on this, but Wendy's offers chicken nuggets in three different sizes.

I had sprung for the biggest size, all right?

And my therapist says it's good for me to talk about it.

Ah.

I'm good.

Finally, I said to Beth, I said, you know what?

I said, if that's the gratitude that she shows, then I'm not going to offer to give her anything tomorrow.

No soup for you.

And then there was this pause.

And then after the silence, Beth said, but you know.

her response shouldn't determine our giving.

And then she said, I mean, if it really is a gift, then we should give it to her regardless of whether she's appreciative or not.

And she was right.

And it changed the way we approach every gift that we give.

What I'm saying is...

I get goosebumps when I said that because it really did.

We don't care anymore what a person says or thinks.

When we offer a gift, we have to tell ourselves it's a gift.

And whether they reject it or whether they're appreciative, that doesn't matter.

It's a gift.

What I'm saying is if I only give when I think the recipient will be grateful, then I'm probably giving for the wrong reason.

And if my motives...

or to receive a pat on the back or recognition, then it's not truly a gift that I'm giving.

It's more of a method for self-exaltation rather than a desire to bless someone.

Here's how Webster defines a gift.

A gift is something voluntarily transferred or given with no expectation of compensation in return.

and we run into problems when we want to make our giving or our generosity contingent on how much appreciation, notoriety, or thanks we receive.

We give a large gift, and we say, well, they better name that hospital wing after me, or you start double tithing, and you think, you know what?

Pastor Jeff or Pastor Jesus better give me a call because that ain't chump change that I'm putting in the offering, or you buy a Frosty and the large chicken nuggets, That person better look me straight in the eyes and give me a heartfelt thank you.

But aren't you grateful?

that God didn't have any qualifiers or contingencies before he sent the gift of his son from heaven to earth.

I am so glad that even before he surrendered our lives to Christ, he had already decided to give us his gift, regardless of our response.

We love because he first loved us.

but I wonder at times from God's perspective, if we seem ungrateful for his generosity.

Hey God, nice of you to live a perfect life and pay for our sins on the cross and all.

And oh yeah, the eternal life thing, that's big too.

But where's the good paying job with health insurance that I've been praying and asking you for?

I mean, I'm waiting, I'm waiting.

And at times our apathetic and selfish response to God's ultimate gift must sound to our heavenly father like, did you get the ranch dressing?

When the proper response should be falling on our knees and worshiping gratitude to say with the apostle Paul, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

God's generosity should inspire us to be generous.

The cure for selfishness is learning to let go, to trust God.

Pastor Jeff said, greed surrenders to generosity at the point of true conversion.

Wow.

A sermon on generosity shouldn't make you feel awkward or squirm unless it needs to.

but a sermon on giving should cause you to evaluate, to do a personal inventory of your charitable giving and your giving to others.

Does your giving reflect your love for Christ?

Does your giving reflect your commitment to this church?

Here in America, we love rags for riches stories.

We love rags for riches stories.

We love it when those who had nothing with their perseverance and passion, they somehow make it big, but the gospel is just the opposite.

its riches to rags.

When divinity left a throne in heaven to become humanity, and because of his humility and unconditional love, he stooped beneath the lowest roof in all of Bethlehem, and he came in the form of a tiny defenseless baby wrapped in rags in a barn.

Listen to 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.

And when it comes to generosity, you can move from it or you can move toward it.

And if you move toward generosity, I promise you this, I guarantee you this, a move toward generosity is a move toward joy.

and it will be a fun, thrilling, exhilarating faith journey like you've never been on before.

Let's pray together.

Father in heaven, will you remind us that we never look more like you than when we give?

Your word says, for God so loved the world that he gave.

And Lord, may we be givers.

And Father, would you just forgive us when our tone or our spirit toward you sounds like, did you get the ranch dressing?

And would you help us to be people who live with an open hand?

And when we see a need, whether it's a church or whether it's in our neighborhood, whether it's in someone that we cross paths with, may we freely give.

and may we receive and discover that incredible joy that comes when we're generous.

It's in Jesus'name we pray, and all God's people said.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

If you want to know more about what it's like to be a Christ follower, I want to encourage you to go to oneandall.church.com to get more information, as well as to reach out to us to walk alongside you in this step.

I also want to encourage you to download our One and All app, as we have so many resources there for you, like our daily devotionals, our conversations, podcasts, as well as...

the sermons, and to know what is happening here at our church so you can get plugged in.

We hope you have a great rest of your week, and we'll end as we always do with one hope, one life in Christ.