The Generosity Principle | Jud Wilhite

Amen, amen. We are so grateful that we get the opportunity each and every weekend to come together and worship our God. Well, I wanna give a huge shout out to all those who are watching it in partnership with our Pando app and God Behind Bars. Let's give it up big for them. Let them know you're here. Well, now is a really good time for you to open the Central Church app so you can go to the teaching notes and let's give it up huge for Pastor Jud as he brings us a message of hope. All right, all right. Welcome, everybody. Good to see you today. Big shout out to our Central family locations who are joining us this weekend. Central Sunrise Mountain and Central Summerland, Central Kingman, Central Aliante. We love you guys. Thank you for being with us today. Well, hey, I don't know if you've noticed, but it is Girl Scout Cookies time of year. Man, it starts popping up in your socials. Tables start going up. I mean, come on. Girl Scout Cookies, it's like for a good cause, and because it's for a good cause, I feel like they're like a health food item, basically,

right, like the calories don't really count. There's nine different Girl Scout Cookies this year, but let's go through the top three. Number three most popular Girl Scout Cookie would be this one right here. This is peanut butter patties, tagalongs. How many of you, this is your jam right here, your weakness. All right, all right, that's good, that's good. All right, number two, the Caramel Delights, the Samoas, come on. We got some Girl Scout people in here. And number one is what, you wanna guess? Right here, Thin Mints, Thin Mints, come on. And by the way, these are best stored, how? In the freezer, come on, people, in the freezer. Now, the problem with Thin Mints is, do you know the recommended serving size of Thin Mints is four? Four, hey man, I'm just warming up on four. I think a whole sleeve is a serving size of Thin Mints, right? Four. And the problem with Girl Scout Cookies, it's the same problem with so many things in life. We always want more, right? You have four, you want five. You get that item that you've been shopping for, you go on that trip that you've been saving for, and as soon as you get back and it's done, or you get that thing, you move on to the next thing.

How many times have you left a restaurant where you ate way too much and you just said to yourself, I'm never eating again? Until the next morning, right? And you wake up and you're like, here we go. There is a thing in human nature that's always desiring more, and more, and more, and more, and more, and if we're not careful, we fall into what I really think is a trap where you believe that your happiness and your joy is always one purchase or one experience away. And so we've been looking at some of Jesus' teachings about how we relate to money and stuff, because I think it helps us realize that we don't have to wait to purchase something to have joy and happiness. We don't have to wait to experience something to have joy and happiness, because our relationship with God can give us the joy and the happiness that we long for more than everything else anyway. And we've been looking at it. Now, once a year, we do this at Central. We take three or four weeks. We look at what the Bible says on money, and I know people get really weird when churches talk about money, and I know churches have abused money, and I know there's all kinds of layers and issues, but we do it once a year

because it's such a big deal in our lives. And this year, we're just peeling back a lot of the layers, and we're asking like, what did Jesus actually say about this stuff? Because I believe Jesus is the greatest teacher to ever live, and listen, as a follower of Jesus, I care more about what Jesus says about this stuff than pretty much anybody else, even my pastor. I care more about what Jesus says than a religious leader. I care more about what Jesus says than a YouTuber. I care more about what Jesus says than a financial planner. I wanna know what Jesus said about how I relate to stuff and money in my life, because I consider myself a follower of Jesus. And so we've been doing that over the last several weeks, and if you've been here over those several weeks, man, it's been some powerful, convicting stuff that Jesus has been laying down as it relates to stuff. I've been convicted in powerful ways, wrestling in my own heart with different issues in my life, and we've looked at like some different principles that Jesus laid down, and here they are. We talked week one about the treasure principle. Jesus says, where your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will be also. Week two, we talked about the security principle, that only a rich relationship with God can give you lasting security in your life. Week three, we talked about the faithfulness principle. If you're faithful with little,

you can be trusted with more. This week, I wanna wrap this series up talking about the generosity principle. And I would say the generosity principle is simply this. You can't outgive God. Whether it's your time, your energy, your heart, your money, your life, you can't outgive God. He'll bless you as you bless him and as you serve him in your life. He'll make it more than worth it. But before we dive in, let me tell you, next weekend, we're gonna have an amazing weekend. We've got Spring Fest coming up. We're gonna have a lot of cool things going on with that. And we're gonna dive into a new teaching series on the power of the good news of Jesus to transform our lives. It's just gonna be called Spread the Word. And I can't wait to dive into that with you. But first, let's look at the generosity principle. And Jesus kind of gets to it in Luke chapter six. We're gonna pick it up in verse 37 where he lays this out. And I want you to notice as we read this that this isn't just about like finances and money and stuff in our life. This is about the whole kind of picture of our life. Look at what Jesus says, Luke chapter six. He says, do not judge others and you will not be judged.

Hmm, some people need to just stop right there. Read that again. Read that again for the people in the back. Do not condemn others or it will all come back against you. Forgive others and you will be forgiven. Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into your lap. Come on, somebody. Now look at what this next sentence says. The amount you give will what? Determine the amount you get back. So Jesus is saying there's a reciprocity in all of this. Forgiven, you'll be forgiven. Don't judge, you won't be judged. You know, like don't condemn others. Show others grace. It will come back to you and more. Be generous with your life, your time. Help others and it will come back to you. He says literally pressed down, shaken together and overflowing into your lap. Now you might get back what you give in the same thing that you give. You might get back something other than you give. You might give money and get back spiritual blessings. You might give time and get back peace and joy. You might get things that money can't buy or you might get material blessings.

God's in charge of all of that, but God has a principle here. It's not karma. The principle is just the generosity principle that life is better when you give from your life. Jesus said it this way. It's more blessed to give than to receive. Blessed is a word that has a big rich meaning of God's divine favor on our life. You want God's divine favor on your life, then focus on giving more than getting, right? Focus on giving more than getting. God will take care of the rest. So I wanna talk to you today about how we can go on a generosity journey with all of our lives and experience more of God as we do. My first challenge for you today is simply this. Give something, give something. Not necessarily just talking about money, time, energy, just give something, right? Whatever it is. How many of you, if you're walking down the street, if you see, now be honest, okay? If you see a penny on the ground, how many of you would actually stop just for an old, almost worthless penny and bend over and pick it up? Who are my penny people? All right, not all of you are, I know, come on. Some of you are like, it's just a penny, it's nasty.

If I bend down, I don't know if I can get back up. There's a lot of risk involved here just for a penny. Anybody like that? You get down, you're like, oh, help me, give me a hand. Right, I gotta get back up. All right, how many of you, for a quarter, how many of you are for sure, you're gonna bend down for a quarter? All right, we got more people bending down for a quarter. How about $5? You see $5, then come on, and if you aren't raising your hand, you're lying. We all see five bucks and we're like, hey, I can actually get a cup of coffee with that, at least something, you know? We're in. I think sometimes we tend, just the same way when we think about things that have value, sometimes when we look at our time, our talent, what God's given us in our lives, sometimes we can think, it's not much. It's not enough to make a difference. It's just like a penny, if you will, or a quarter, or a five. You know, it's not gonna really matter. Only big, extravagant acts of generosity matter to God. This is what we sometimes kind of think subconsciously in our minds, and Jesus is gonna tell us a story to challenge that and to remind us that God sees every act of kindness

and generosity and that it all matters to Him. He's the one that keeps score. In fact, check it out, in Mark in the Gospels, Mark chapter 12, Jesus. Now, can you even imagine this moment? Jesus is sitting, and he's sitting by the offering box at the temple, and he's watching people give their offering. Can you imagine you're like at the temple, you're going up to put your offering in, and yo, Jesus is just sitting there watching you, like, I'm watching you. I mean, come on, right? Jesus is just right there, he's just watching people go by, and they're putting their money in, you know, like wealthy people are giving out of their excess, right? And this widow walks up, and all she's got's two little coins like worth a penny, not much. She puts it in. Jesus calls his disciples over to him, and this is what he says. Mark chapter 12, beginning of verse 43. Help me out when we get to this red word. Jesus says, I tell you the truth. This poor widow has given what? More than all the others who are making contributions, for they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on. And Jesus just calls it out, and notice, nobody else noticed the widow, but God did.

Jesus did. Nobody else would have thought that those two little coins mattered at all, but God did. Jesus did. So not about the amount, right? It's about the heart. And whatever God has put in your hand is important and valuable, and it means something to you. And when you're generous with that to help others, to bless others, to serve others, to give it back to God, to honor him with it, God will bless you, and he will see that. And I think it starts in our lives. When we start to give and be generous in every level in our lives, it starts what we might call a generosity journey. And just a real simple way to think about it is just like this, like the generosity journey starts when I realize, first, God blesses me, right? I don't just have like random things that happen in my life. What I have in my life is from God. He's good, he's kind, he's generous. He's given me family, friendships, relationships, opportunities, abilities to pursue things. He's blessed me, he's given me gifts in my life, and so it all comes from God. Then I make a concerted effort to give something to be generous back to God, and so I bless others.

There's a lot of ways you can do that. Yes, you can bless others financially. You can help your neighbors, your friends. You can be generous to your church. You can bless others in a lot of different ways. You can bless your employer by using your skills and your talents to the best of your ability to serve your clients. You can bless people in your family and friendships with time, with energy, however it is. God blesses me, I bless others. But it doesn't stop there. We don't do this for step three, but I think step three is just what happens when you do this. Step three is I receive more. I receive more. Now, it may be more time, more energy, more favor, more peace, more joy, more of a sense that God's got me in my life. You know, like might be more resources. Like God blesses me, I bless others. I receive more. It's the generosity journey. And when we go on it, God can move in it in powerful ways in our lives. So look, if you're stingy with your forgiveness, you know what happens? Your heart begins to shrink. But if you forgive quickly and often,

your relationships will grow and they will deepen and your gift returns to you with more. You see that? Listen, if you don't offer grace to those who need it, grace begins to drain from your own world. But if you're full of grace, your world expands and that gift returns to you as more. When you cling tightly to everything you own, never giving anything away, no matter how much you have or don't have, it's never gonna feel like you have enough. But when you're generous with what you have, when you live with an open hand to give, it's also an open hand to receive the good things that God wants to give back to you. So Jesus is challenging us. Don't withhold your gifts. Don't hold back your love, your grace, your forgiveness. Release it, send it out into the world so that God can bless it. And in his timing, he can bring it back to you. When you're generous with your life, God is generous in your life. So this week, simple challenge, give something. Even the widow's mite mattered to God, right? Even the smallest act of generosity mattered to God. Give encouragement, give forgiveness, give a favor, give a compliment, give of your resources. Even if it feels small, with God, even small gifts can have a large impact, right?

Give something. Here's my second thought for you today, to go on a generosity. journey in our lives and that is to give consistently, to do it consistently. A few years ago I got a physical, I don't know if you've ever had a physical like this, but you know physicals aren't fun right? You get poked, you get prodded, you go through all the tests and all the stuff and then you're like sit down and the doctor comes in and he looks at all the things and and several years ago I got a bad physical man. The doctor looked at me and he was like he's like it's not good. He's like you're not handling stress well, your numbers are high, all the all the wrong numbers are high and all and you know it was I was just all off the off the page. He's given me the riot act and I mean basically I walked out of his office and I thought I'm about to die. Like I got one foot in the grave, I'm almost dead already and so I had to like go to work you know and I had to get on some medications, I had to start working out, I had to change my diet, I had to start trying to do things to manage it. Well fast forward to this year okay. This year in December I got my physical, my annual physical done. I go in, my doctor says to me quote his exact words. He goes Judd, so good. You stone-cold nailed this physical. I'm like hey man when you're when you get old these things excite you right? When you're an old person you're like I think I just scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl man. My doctor just told me I'm not gonna die tomorrow you know like. He's like you stone-cold nailed this physical. I said say it again into my phone so I can play it back for my wife because I'm celebrating with Girl Scout cookies you know. It was an awesome moment but here's the thing. If you looked at me several years ago and you looked at me today from the outside I would look basically the same. Maybe a little older okay but basically the same but on the inside things are a lot healthier now than they were then and I think this is what generosity can do in our lives. When we just get a generous spirit in our lives from the outside we might look kind of the same but on the inside things are getting healthier. Things are happening

there in our lives that are powerful. So what does it mean to be generous? Well the New Testament doesn't really give us hard parameters on what it means to be generous. It just says be generous as God blesses you. Bless God. Bless others. You know like live a generous life. Lots of times this is frustrating for us because we want absolutes. We want clarity like well what exactly does that mean you know. Just tell me how much am I supposed to give. Do I give 1%? 2%? 10 bucks? What you know what do I need to do? So what Christians have done historically is they look to the Old Testament law for a principle not for a law but for a principle. We as New Testament believers do not believe we're under the Old Testament covenant law but we still read the Old Testament. We we learn from the Old Testament. We get principles from the Old Testament right but these aren't laws over us because we're in the age of grace. We're forgiven by what Jesus Christ did to us now right and so when you look to the Old Testament and Christians have used this as a baseline for thousands of years. In the Old Testament they talked about the tithe but it was actually more than that. We'll talk about it about it in a minute and some people say well the you know in the New Testament the tithe is never commanded. That's an Old Testament thing not a New Testament thing but I will say I have just a couple of cautions I would I would put to that and one is Jesus himself. Look at what Jesus says in Luke chapter 11 verse 42. Jesus is talking about the religious leaders, me, and here's what he says. He says, what sorrow awaits you Pharisees for you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens. It's like even the tip money. They tithe even on the tip money okay. Even the tiniest income they get from their herb gardens but you ignore justice and the love of God. Now Jesus says this, you what? You should tithe. Oh people don't people forget that. Jesus says you should tithe yes but do not neglect the more important things. So Jesus does actually affirm the tithe in the New Testament. He says yeah you should do that. Good for you but it's not the most important thing. See being generous, giving back to God is a spiritual discipline we engage in but even Jesus says it's not the most important spiritual discipline. Sometimes

people feel like I tithe 10% of my income I can do whatever I want. Come on right? You know I check the box, I go to church, I write my tithe check and I can live however I want. Jesus says no no no no this isn't the most important thing right? Love of God, justice, these things are Actually more important, giving is a part of our spiritual journey. It is not the most important part of the spiritual journey. And so that's a word for all of us today. So Wesley Huff, he said this, he said, Jesus didn't abolish the tithe, he transformed it. It went from a legal requirement to being more of a cheerful response. So in the Old Testament, there were actually three forms of tithes. There was a regular tithe, 10% is what the word tithe means. It was a regular tithe, 10% that was given to support the temple. There was a festival tithe that was also given every year to support all the festivals and all the things going on there. And then there was a tithe for the poor that was given every three years. So if you add it all up, like the Old Testament believer following the law would have given about 23% of their agricultural produce back to God in a year through all of these tithes. And I don't believe we're under the Old Testament law. I think that's why the New Testament just says give and give freely. You don't see Paul nowhere commands the tithes

when he writes to the churches later on in the New Testament. But I think the 10% is a baseline for us. It's a guide, right? It's something to aspire to. I would put it this way, like, I mean, if people before Jesus Christ were giving 23% of their income back to God, then man, how much more us today when we are now on this side of the cross and of all the incredible work that he's done, when we see the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, when we've been redeemed and set free, how much more should we desire to be generous? Not because we have to, right? But because we get to. I aspire personally to give more than 10% back to God, not because I have to, but because I get to. It's my joy to do that. I'm not putting that on anybody else. I'm just telling you what I do. I believe that, like, 90% with me and God is more than 100% on my own anyway. I think God takes it and blesses me, and what I've learned in my life is you can't outgive God. He brings it back to you in ways you can never quantify on a math sheet. But you gotta go on your own journey with that. At Central, we are never about guilting people. We're never about twisting people's arms.

We're never about, like, you gotta go on your own spiritual journey with that, and I'll love you no matter what. That's between you and God, right? But I think about it in my own life. I give regularly to the power company. Come on, somebody. I give regularly to my insurance providers. I give regularly to streaming services because they provide me things I need and want, and how much more shouldn't I want to give to God who's literally saved my life, who leads me, calls me, provides for me, favors me, protects me. He sets my feet on solid ground. He goes before me. He goes behind me. He gives me hope. He gives me a future. He secures my eternity in heaven. I mean, look, it's not a have to. It's a get to. I want to honor God with part of what he's blessed me with in my life, and so my challenge to you is give something. Give it consistently. There's a lot of ways that you can honor God by being generous. You can help your friends and neighbors when they're hurting. You have people in your life.

This happens all the time around here at Central. Somebody will be in a small group or in a community. They're going through a hard time. Somebody will walk up to them and just slip them some money and say, hey man, make sure you get through to the end of the month, right? Or let me take care of this bill for you in your life. This happens. I hear about this stuff every single week, all the time. And I tell you, I believe that's honoring to God. It's a beautiful thing, right? You're just being generous. God's going to bless you. He's going to reward that. You're giving to God by helping people out. Sometimes it's helping family members out. Sometimes it's helping take care of other people that you love in your life. And my only encouragement to you in this series has been don't overreach your own local church while you do that. Also take care of your church. If this is your local church, I want to encourage you to support your local church as God blesses you. If you are part of another local church, I want to encourage you to support that local church. Don't be supporting us. You need to go support that local church

because they need your support. Because it's easy to walk into a local church and be like, oh, they got a big building, air conditioners on, they don't need anything. And to not realize that the church is actually supported by a very small group of people who contribute and give back to honor God in doing that. And so my encouragement to you is don't neglect to support your local church. Now, some people over the years, they say, well, I don't know if I can trust the church to handle those monies well. And I would say like in our case, we have an open books policy. You can see our books. You can look at how we spend things. But I would say this, if you can't get to a place where you can trust your church to handle your. gifts well, you need to go to another church, right? Where you can, you know, like, and I don't mean that arrogantly, I mean like genuinely, like, get that question answered for yourself, or go somewhere where you can get an answer for yourself, so you can feel good about being a part of something that's impacting people's lives. When you support the work at Central, it fuels the mission to introduce people to Jesus and help them follow him. And so whether it's three million pounds of food

that we were able to help distribute to our friends and neighbors wrestling with food insecurity last year, whether it's all the work that we do in prisons and with prisoners through God Behind Bars, and when they come out, whether it's, which by the way, this last weekend a guy grabbed me in the hallway, and you know, big guy, big beard, normal looking guy grabbed me, goes, hey man, I want you to know, I came to faith watching you guys in the prisons. And he said, now sometimes guys say that, and they're like, I've been out three weeks, and I'm like, okay, awesome, we gotta get you connected to some people, man. But this guy was like, no, I've been out about five years now and he's like, he walked me over and he introduced me to his wife, he's got three little kids now, and this family, and with tears in his eyes, he thanked me for the way the church blessed him. That's what the church is about, right? And we contribute, we're part of that, we're part of 24 hours a day, seven days a week, care and prayer line, open to people who call in every single day, who are hurting, who are going through things, we're about helping students,

raising up the next generation, helping people come to know Christ, like that's what the local church is, if you're part of it here at Central, I just wanna challenge you, man, help support it as God blesses you, help support the amazing work God is doing. So give something, give consistently, here's my third thought, and then grow, because what's gonna happen is you're gonna grow. Now, there's an interesting story in the Gospels of John and Mark, Jesus is sitting down, he's the honored guest at a guy's table, and he's sitting there and a woman named Mary comes in and she takes a jar of perfume, alabaster, and pours it over his head, and then on his feet, she takes her hair and wipes it on his feet as like a huge act of kindness and honor, and Jesus will say later, she's symbolically like preparing him for his death and burial that was coming up, but some people at the table are bothered by this, because they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, this would have been the equivalent of about a year's wages that she just poured out on Jesus, and the people at the table are like, man, how many of the poor could we have fed with that? Right, how many people could be fed with that? Like what a waste is what they say,

and they chastise her and they get onto her, which is an interesting thing, because look at what Jesus says next in Mark chapter 14, but Jesus replied, leave her alone. He says, why criticize her for doing such a what? Good thing to me. You will always have the poor among you, and you can help them whenever you want to, but you will not always have me. She has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time. I tell you the truth, wherever the good news is preached throughout the world, this woman's deed will be remembered and discussed. And here we are, 2,000 years later, remembering it and discussing it. But here's the deal, like some people use this verse to say you can never solve the problem of poverty, and I don't think that was what Jesus is saying at all. Yes, the poor will always be with you, but obviously the heart of God is that we take care of the poor, and that's our heart as a church. That's why we do so much to help our friends and neighbors, because that's a huge part of what the church should be about. But I think he's also calling us to realize that there are times for extravagant generosity given to God.

Jesus is worthy of extravagant generosity. And it may not always make sense to you. You know, it may not always make sense to you. The people sit around the table, they're like, what a waste. How many poor people could we have fed? I mean, I've heard that over the years. I can remember different building campaigns and things that we did in the church when people sacrificed and gave so that we could sit in the facilities that we're able to sit in and worship God. And people say, well, what a waste. We should have given all that money to the poor. But here's what I challenge you with. It's the chicken or the egg, right? Yeah, we could have liquidated everything and given it all to the poor and it's gone. Or you organize and create a community and a faith community that over one year and two years and five years and certainly 10 years gives all of that and more away and over 20 years doubles. and over 30 years, triples it, right? You know what I mean? Like, it's the chicken or the egg. But it's easy to be critical, like, what a waste. Somebody was telling me when we first built our Henderson location, there was an intern standing outside

and they put some palm trees up and we don't have much in the way of landscaping. It's pretty much like a nuclear bomb went off out there, but this person looked at this palm tree and they're like, what a waste. Imagine how many poor people that palm tree could have fed. Well, here's the thing. In Jesus' story, the Gospel of John particularly tells us that one individual in particular said, what a waste, and it was Judas. And John says Judas managed the money for the disciples. He was the treasurer. And then John adds, and he helped himself, stole the funds. Sometimes the people that criticize others when it comes to generosity actually are criticizing because they have something in their own heart they need to work out, right? And it's kind of a Judas spirit. Judas says, what a waste. Jesus says, what a gift, right? And it's just a caution, I think, for all of us. Be wise about how we manage our resources. Be wise about what we give to. Be wise about what we support, yes. But we don't wanna get the Judas spirit that tears down another person's generosity or attacks another group because they don't meet our standard. When in the end, it's actually maybe something about our own heart that we need to surrender

more than it is about that thing. God protect us from the Judas spirit. Because I think God looks around at people who've sacrificed. You could go to any one of our locations and whether it's vehicles that are used to pick up food or resources and drop them off that people gave extravagantly so those things could be purchased or it's screens in an auditorium and you could say, well, what a waste. But don't criticize the gifts someone else gave so that we could all come and worship and be a part of it. Or all the people who came in and set chairs up and helped take old chairs down back when we remodeled our auditorium at Henderson and put all new chairs in and we went through the whole thing and like people sacrificed for that. Maybe Jesus is saying not what a waste, but what a gift, right? And that extravagant gift blesses all of us because we're part of the community. And so we all have this desire for more, but God can provide for us as we trust in him. And when we think about the last four weeks looking at Jesus teaching on money and stuff, there's been some hard things in this, some tough things to wrestle with,

but also some really special and sacred things to wrestle with. Jesus is flying over at like 50,000 feet and he's telling us, listen, your life isn't measured by what you own, right? It's not about all the things you have. Trust God, trust in me, he's saying. Don't worry, don't fret, I got you. Seek first the kingdom of God, he says, and everything else will be added to you. Seek first the kingdom of God and everything. One more time for the people in the back. Seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you, everything. And everything means everything, right? So we put him first in our lives morally. We put him first in our lives spiritually. We put him first in our lives financially. We put him first in our lives relationally. We put him first in our, we seek him first and we know that he will add all things to our lives as we follow him and as we trust him. You can't out-give him, right? You can't out-serve him. He'll bring it all back into your life and more. And some of you, you may feel like you're drowning in need right now, but I want you to know, God can fill your life with his abundance. Some of you may feel like you're drowning in debt,

but God can provide provision. Some of you may be struggling and in pain, but God can give you a peace that passes understanding. Some of you are in a season of testing, but stay faithful and keep trusting. God can give you his favor and protection. Give your time, give your love, give your help. Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. So live with a generous heart and let God reward that. Go on a generosity journey with God. Give something, give regularly and grow in your faith. And when you think about Mary, she poured that alabaster jar on Jesus. It gave something very valuable, but just shortly after that, Jesus would give something even more valuable, his own life for all of us. And he would die so that we. He could be forgiven and free and live in a relationship with God. And I don't think God wants money to be the barrier between us and him. God wants way more than our money, by the way. He wants our heart. He wants everything. And he has our best interests at heart.

When we surrender to him, he moves, he works, he blesses, he molds, he shapes, he does his incredible work. So today I wanna give some of you an opportunity just to surrender to God, to ask him to move and work in your life, to place your faith and your trust in Jesus. Some of you, God's been tapping you on the shoulder. He's been calling you to come home to him. You've been resisting, you've been dodging and running and kind of hiding out, but you can't get away. And even now you ended up under the sound of my voice and I don't believe it's by accident. I don't think it's by chance. You even showed up on the generosity message of the year. And I think you're here because God had something more for you in your life. He wants something more for you in your heart. He wants to bless you, forgive you, restore you and redeem you and set you on your feet and allow you to walk in purpose with him. He's already prepared good works in advance for you to do. And you come to know him and follow him, you're gonna walk right into those good works. So I'm gonna ask all of you, would you bow your heads and close your eyes? And if you're here today and you know God's been moving in your heart and life and you're ready to reach out to him and trust him, I'm gonna ask you to just repeat

this simple prayer after me, either out loud or just in your own heart and mind. To say, dear God, I thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus into the world. I believe he died on the cross for my sins. I believe he rose again. Forgive me for my sins. Give me the gift of eternal life and help me face the challenges that I'm up against. God, I surrender my life to you in Christ's name. Friends, with every head bowed and every eye closed, if that's your prayer, I'm gonna ask you to just slip your hand in the air just to acknowledge you're gonna trust God today, whatever location you may be at. If you're in our partnership with God behind bars, if you're watching at home, would you just slip your hand in the air, acknowledge you're gonna trust him and follow him. And God, we just thank you for each person trusting you. We pray you will move in their life, bless them, heal, restore, forgive. God, set them on a path of purpose and of mission as they follow you in faith. I pray that you meet their needs. I pray that you encourage them, remind them every day from this moment forward that they're never alone, that you're always with them, God. We commit them to you now in Jesus' name, amen.