You’re right, Alex, that sort of extends longer than you’re expecting. So who’s that guy’s voice? Why does he keep rambling on? Morning South Fellowship Church. Good to see you all and your smiling faces this morning. If you don’t know if you’re new or newish, my name is Aaron Bjorklin.

I’m one of the pastors here at South. And if that is you like Alex said, we’ve got the newcomer’s lunch out there. If you can’t make it to that today there’s also a new here table in the lobby. That’s there every week, and you can find out information about the next one that’s gonna come up. I’d encourage you to check that out.

One of the things, I don’t have a huge sample size. It’s not like I’ve preached hundreds and hundreds of times. But one of the things I’ve learned one of the occupational hazards of being a preacher is that it seems like God’s really committed to teaching me the lessons before he wants me to try and teach you guys the lessons.

And Maybe Alex can vouch for this, but it seems like every time I’m assigned a passage or a subject matter that week, I just get hit by that topic. I’ve discovered all the ways that I’m bad at that thing. And then he works on my soul and this week was no different. So I was approaching this week and I’ve been assigned a specific subject and I’m processing that.

And then I was staring the reality of my own weakness in the face because this week a few things happened. One, I started my seminary classes again, and that means there’s like a low grade anxiety in my household, specifically for me and for my wife, because there’s just I sleep a little bit less, because I’m doing homework in the evenings and in the mornings, because I’m trying not to invade family time and all that sort of thing.

And there’s just there’s there’s like this low grade anxiety. Is there going to be enough time? There’s a lot of reading to do. There’s a lot of papers to write. So that’s just this undergirding thing. And then on top of that, this week I had I was planning on preaching this message. My workflow is designed to put on the music portion of these services.

It’s not as well suited for preparing messages like this. And so there’s things invading my space and time and study prep and all this stuff. And so I’m just, the anxiety starts to rise up in me and I’m like, there’s not enough time. There’s just not enough time. There’s not enough sleep. And inevitably, it’s if, it’s almost like Clara understands, our little one understands that this is happening.

And so she decides I’m going to wake up extra at night. That way you can affirm that there is not enough time and there’s not enough sleep. There’s just not enough. But I found that for me, this is something I feel in a lot of areas of my life. There’s that low grade anxiety that there’s not going to be enough money.

It’s a thing I struggle with. In fact, this week, again, in preparation for this message, I found myself getting angry, just a little bit peeved with my family about, Oh we’re almost out of toilet paper. We’re almost out of milk. And I’m thinking, I just, I don’t think the budget’s going to work this month.

Maybe I’m not the only person who feels this low grade anxiety around my finances. Is it gonna be enough? The pie is just disappearing right in front of me. There’s this little character in the Inside Outs. Number two, this is anxiety, right? This is this is the anxiety character. And this character is introduced when the these are all these little cartoon characters that represent emotions of a particular girl.

And anxiety is a character that’s introduced when she becomes a teenager and she starts to Just be anxious about stuff and when she’s describing, anxiety is describing her job. My job is to anticipate all of the bad things that could possibly happen, right? It’s the, we’re not gonna have enough money this month.

It’s the, I’m not gonna have enough time this month. It’s not it’s on and on and maybe if you’re like me, that’s been ratcheting up a little bit extra because of things like this, the price of eggs. It’s outlandish, isn’t it? This is supposed to be the low price protein option. And four, five, six, seven dollars for a carton of eggs?

You’ve got to be kidding me. Or inflation. Over the last three years, twenty eight percent. You’ve got to be kidding me. And so maybe, just maybe, you’re like me, and you’re sensing the pressure rising in you. Funny thing, psychologists know that this is super unhealthy for us as human beings And they’ve done some studies.

Did you know that anxiety about not having enough does this? It reduces cognitive potential. Anxiety about not having enough makes you dumber. Reduce, it reduces empathetic response to others. My reaction to my family when they ask for toilet paper? I’m gonna get angry about that? You’ve got to be kidding me.

It reduces empathetic response to others. It reduces a person’s ability to maximize what they do have. In other words, when you’re anxious about not having enough, you’re dumber with what you do have. It is a messed up thing. And here’s the reality, church. Anxiety about not having enough is one of humanity’s oldest predators.

It feels like it’s always lurking, always ready to pounce. At the very beginning of human existence, in Genesis chapter 3, a serpent told Adam and Eve, You know what? God’s holding out on you. All those trees, all that food, not enough. You need a little bit. More and ever since then, it’s been haunting humanity.

I wish I could trace the entire scope of the biblical narrative to tell you how significant this is for humanity, but I don’t got time for that. So that’s why we have a podcast midweek. If you want to tune into the podcast, I might trace that a little bit more for us in the podcast. But fortunately for us, I think that today’s passage gives us some insight into how to deal with one of humanity’s greatest and most old predators that has been haunting us from the beginning of time.

And our passage, if you want to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9, we’re gonna be hanging out in 2 Corinthians chapter 9. But before I read that for us, I’d like to just pray. Father God, I thank you for this morning. I thank you that your word has something to say to us about this feeling that many of us from the laughter might be feeling today.

This feeling that maybe there’s just not enough. Would you heal us? We pray. By the power of your word, by the gift of your spirit, Amen and Amen. Actually, Alice has been making this attrition. Would you stand with me? And I’m going to read this passage starting in verse 6, 2nd Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 6.

I’m going to do my best to track this with the slides as well. So it says this, Paul writing to the church in Corinth says this, remember this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your hearts to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things and in all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever. Now, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and through every and through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

Because of the service by which you have proved Prove yourselves, others will praise God for the abundance that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ. And for the generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in the prayers for your hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. You may be seated. Lord, thank you for your word. Teach as we pray.

Before we dive into this passage, let me just give us a little bit of context. So this is a letter that Paul wrote to this church that he planted Called Corinth or it’s a church in Corinth. And he’d written a couple different times to them. In his first letter to this church, he planted the church, he went away, then he wrote him a letter, and in his first letter, he kinda lays down the law because the church had gone astray, they’d done all sorts of wacky stuff.

If you wanna read a really strange, crazy story about a church not doing a great job, read 1 Corinthians. And he’d written this letter to them. This church in Corinth, it’s a very wealthy city. And it’s the crossroads of a lot of traffic, a lot of young sailors, young military retirees and so forth.

A ton of wealth, but it’s also a sin city. And it’s just, they had screwed up, he wrote 1 Corinthians. But then we find out there’s probably a few, maybe a couple other letters that are involved in this interaction with this church. But they, the result of this first letter, a lot of scholars believe that a lot of the church just rejected him.

And one of the reasons they rejected Paul’s authority was because he was poor. It’s as if they were saying, you know what, why do we need to listen to this guy? If what he said was right, wouldn’t he be living the good life? We’re rich, and so clearly our way of living is better than his, right? And so part of what he done is he corrected this and then he talks about, okay, not letters aren’t sufficient.

So he goes and he visits them and he describes that visit in the second chapter of this book. He says, so I made up my mind that I would not make another visit. In other words, he’d made a visit that he calls a painful visit to you. In other words, he wrote them a letter, they rejected his authority, and then he showed up and he laid down the law.

And he said, guys, we’ve got to get our act together. This was a painful visit. And so some of what’s going on in second Corinthians, which is the book we’re spending our time in here is he’s now writing to comfort them. Because fortunately for them, they’d repented and the majority of the church, most scholars believe the church had repented over this wrong attitude around his authority and so forth.

And so he writes this letter to them to comfort them and encourage them. You know what? You’re not outside. It’s okay. It’s okay. I still love you. You’re still mine. And so the first seven chapters leading up to where we’re at in this story is him comforting, encouraging, reminding them of his connection to them, his relationship to them, and God’s work among them that is continuing.

And then he jumps into the passage that we’re going to read today. He starts with this. Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. So there’s a principle of sowing and reaping written into God’s world. Okay, all that background stuff will become relevant in just a moment, but let’s just hunker down and see what he’s saying here in this passage, and it’ll all come full circle.

If I’m honest, when I read passages like this in the Bible, it just rubs me the wrong way. Whoever so sparingly Will reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously will reap generously. Is that really how it works? I don’t know. I’ve got this picture in my head of these megachurch like health, wealth, and prosperity gospel preachers up on the stage in their fancy suits saying send me your check and I’ll send you your healing and all this stuff.

It just feels like I just give more money, the more money I give, the more money I get. Is that really the formula? And it doesn’t seem to work out in my life. Is that so if I give more, is this really the formula taking place? Is this really how it works? I think there’s more going on here than that, but it rubs me the wrong way when I read these passages because it just it doesn’t feel quite right.

We know it can’t be exactly that because. I already mentioned Paul is poor, and we know that Jesus was poor. Jesus was like this nomadic, homeless preacher man. And so you think Jesus wasn’t generous? Is that why he was poor? And it was part of what he was correcting in this church, right?

So some of what’s going on here is that Paul is saying that there’s, we have this perception that maybe money in money out, that’s not exactly the formula that works here. So if you look at it with me in second Corinthians nine, it says this, as it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, the righteousness endures forever.

Now, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply an increased storehouse of seed and will enlarge the harvest of what money righteousness.

So what Paul isn’t promising is that money in money out. That’s not the formula here. What he’s promising is that your investment of your resources financially, energy, time, sleep, these investments, if you sow them in the right place, you will reap a harvest of a kingdom thing. Righteousness, right standing in God’s world and in his kingdom.

I was reading Psalm 104 this week and it was fascinating to me as I was prepping this. It was like this picture of the fields that we have a potential of sowing in. Like we can sow our seed of our giving into God’s fields, or we can sow them into our own kingdom and into our own fields. And Psalm 104 says this.

This is describing the fields that we have a potential of investing our seeds of giving. He makes springs pour water into the ravines. It flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by the waters. They sing among the branches.

He waters the mountains from his upper chambers. The land is satisfied by the fruits of his work. He makes grasses grow. for the cattle. And this whole chapter is just on and on about the abundant overflow of resources that God pours into his fields. And so it’s like this. We have two options.

We can take the seeds of our giving our finances, our energy, our resources, our mental capacities, and we can sew them into a sandbox, which is our kingdom. Or we can sew them into the abundant fields that are watered by God himself. In God’s economy, we plant our time and our talents into fields that are well watered, fertilized by the word of his power, sustained and shined upon by the light of the world.

Jesus and protected by the great shepherd. That is the field that we have the potential of investing in. It is an abundant field. It’s just a good investment. And so Here’s the first thing we can learn from this text about generosity. Generous giving leads to kingdom abundance. It’s a principle that he’s written into the fabric of his creation, that when we invest in his fields, the kingdom of God, it does produce a different kind of fruit.

It’s not just money in money out. It’s money in kingdom of God out.

But there’s another thing that he teaches us here. It’s not that generosity just leads to provision. It’s also that it’s a specific kind of generosity, not just generosity in general, but a specific kind of generosity. Let’s learn about that for just a moment. Each of you should give what you have decided in your hearts to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Okay, so this isn’t just money in. It’s a joyful giver. excited giving. It’s a cheerful kind of giving. It’s a willing kind of giving. And Paul is so adamant about this subject that he harps on it all through his letter to this little church. He says it here and here and here and here. Let me just read one of those for you.

He says this, For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable and according to what one has. Not according to what one does not have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are at hard pressed, but that there might be equality. So in other words, you, he’s asking you to be generous and asking this church to be generous in a specific way, in a cheerful way.

So the question is, why does cheerfulness matter? Why is this an important caveat for Paul to include and harp on for this church? And it’s this. God loves gifts given with joy because they reflect trust, not control. God loves this kind of giver. Remember, Paul wrote to affirm this church and to love them.

And I find it interesting, why would he start talking about money? If he’s trying to encourage this church, And I imagine some of these people in this church are starting to feel a little bit of guilt and shame. They’ve been put in their place by Paul from this difficult visit. There’s a little bit of guilt and shame already hovering around this particular community.

Why in the world would he start talking about money in that context if his goal was to comfort them? It’s a strange thing to do. Is it unwise for him to do? Paul brings up money here not because he wants to care for the churches only in Jerusalem. So one of the things he’s doing is he’s traveling around his, the different churches he planted and he’s collecting offerings for the church in Jerusalem that is suffering from a significant drought.

So is Paul doing something here? Is he saying, I know this, they’re full of guilt and they’re full of shame so now they’re right for the picking. I know that I can ask them anything, and because they’re feeling guilty, they’re just going to give me money to assuage their sense of shame and guilt.

Is that what’s going on here? No. God loves gifts given with joy because they reflect trust, not control. Giving benefits the recipient, but cheerful giving benefits the giver, and I think that Paul specifically brings up and invites them into this thing because he actually knows that there’s something powerful about generosity that can start to shatter shame and guilt.

There’s something powerful about generosity that can heal some things in this church. So how does it benefit the giver? For this church, it’s this. It helps to heal the wounds of shame. It gets them back into the ecosystem of God’s kingdom and God’s world, and in the ecosystem of God’s kingdom and God’s world, shame shrivels and it dies.

That’s one of the things that generosity does for this church, but it also helps them surrender control. Remember the weapon that this church had used against Paul was their own wealth. And so Paul says, you know what, I’m going to disarm that weapon and I’m going to allow you the opportunity to relinquish the control of using your own financial well being as a weapon against the world.

He’s inviting them back in. This is one of the reasons why I’d encourage you as a spiritual practice that some of your giving should be to places and things you don’t have control over. I don’t, I’m not saying be unwise, go ahead and vet the nonprofits that you give money to. But one of the powers and one of the terrifying realities of giving money to a local church like South is, you don’t know if the staff is going to use it wisely and the elder boards are going to prove it wisely.

There’s a little bit of now, even if you want to be about God’s kingdom, you have to surrender and say, God, are you big enough? Are you strong enough? Are you wise enough, God, to work in and through the brokenness of the staff at South Fellowship Church and the weakness of the elder board of South Fellowship Church.

And they’re wise. And I love the staff and I trust this elder, but still like they’re humans. Is my money safe with them? Is it actually going to go to wise places? I think that’s actually one of the gifts of generosity. Is it saying you know what God, you’re big enough, you’re strong enough, that you can work in and through humanity.

And he’s been doing it since the beginning of time. It’s a way of relinquishing control. So I want to brag a little bit on our elder board, and I can do this because I’m not on it. I think our elder board has demonstrated and illustrated a posture of generosity. A couple years ago, and they’ve done it a couple different ways, a couple years ago we got a large anonymous gift.

And the first thing that they did with this gift was to tithe from this gift. On the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars they gave to our local partners and our global partners. That’s a weird thing for a non profit to do. To take in donations and then to give donations from those donations. That’s not a normal non profit thing to do.

I don’t know, like maybe others do this too, but it’s a posture of generosity because I believe, I don’t know all the conversations that took place. I’m just imagining a little bit. I know some of them pretty well. They wanted to recognize that this isn’t the solution to all of South Fellowship Church’s problems.

God doesn’t need South Fellowship to have this money. The Kingdom of God has plenty of resources and as a posture of reminding ourselves as a board and as a staff that it’s His, we’re going to tithe some of it. So that’s one way they show generosity. Another way is over the course of this past couple years as they’ve been having conversations about women on the elder board and so forth.

They were aware that regardless of which decisions they made, there was going to be some people that left. And some of those people were very give big donors to this church. And with a posture of saying, you know what? That doesn’t need us to make a decision out of fear that there’s not going to be enough.

He wants us to hear his voice in his heart and make a decision regardless of where the chips fall. This is an example of what it means to let go of control. So God loves gifts given with joy because they reflect trust rather than control. And control is toxic to the soul. God wants your trust. He doesn’t want your money.

So there’s something else going on here. What else can we learn from this letter? I’m going to read another little movement here, because there’s more that Paul has for this church. Starting in verse 8, he says this, And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies the seed to the sower and bread for the food will also supply and increase your storehouse of seed, and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. One of the questions I already alluded to earlier is that Am I doing it wrong?

Is this really how it works? If I just invest here, is it automatically going to produce this outcome? I think he gives us some answers to that question. He says, first God is able to bless you abundantly. He has all the resources at his fingertips. Did you know that God created the heavens and the earth?

He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, Psalm 50. He doesn’t need our money. South Fellowship Church, if God wants this place to continue, he doesn’t need our money. He could make it happen. He’s able. What else do we see here? He provides abundantly so that in all things and at all times, having all that you need, you will be able to live.

So why does he invite us into generosity so that we can participate in his kingdom work? It’s that we would be able to engage in his world, engage in what we were designed to do. And the third reason is that it produces this harvest of righteousness. Money isn’t the best thing that God has to offer us.

He is. His kingdom is, because his kingdom has far more than just paying the bills. His kingdom has relationship, it has safety, it has peace, it has the forgiveness of sin, it has the solution to every single ailment that the human soul struggles with. The harvest of righteousness is like gold, and that’s what he wants for us.

Money isn’t the best thing that he has. Standing with him is the best thing he has to offer. And This is another thing we learned from this. God provides abundantly so we can work freely. God provides abundantly so that we can work freely. Maybe if you’re feeling anxious today about your finances, it’s because we’ve forgotten that there is more than enough in the world to sustain us.

As long as we’re invested in a world that God designed it to be, which is his kingdom. So Paul doesn’t stop there. He moves on. He gives them another little lesson in verse 12 and 13. Look at it with me.

I’m moving on. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people, but it is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because the service by which you have proven yourself, others will praise God. For the abundance that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them, and with everyone else.

Generosity is an investment. And it’s an invitation to get in the game for this church. Think about it for this church. This church has wounded Paul. They’ve sinned in a whole bunch of ways. If there was shame creeping into the community, Paul’s invitation is to get back into the kingdom of God game. And one of the ways he does that is by inviting them into generosity.

Generosity is an invitation to this church. It’s a kindness of Paul to ask for their money. Because this church has an opportunity to invest in the kingdom of God. Did you know that there’s one place that I’m aware of, maybe there’s more, but I’m pretty sure this is the only place in the scriptures where God invites you to be prideful.

Invites you to be a boasting kind of a person. And that’s it, that’s in 1 Thessalonians. And Paul says this to another one of his churches for what is our hope and our joy or our crown, which we glory. That’s the word in the Greek pride or boasting in the presence of our Lord. Jesus, when he comes, is it not you?

Indeed, you are our boasting or our glory or our pride. In other words, Paul paints this picture of him in the heavenly throne room and worshiping Jesus and looking around the room. And he sees the worship and the praise of God’s people. And he says, you know what? I had a part of that. And everything I had was God’s anyway.

But I got to be like at the center of so and so’s worship. Because I invited them in. Or I gave a gift. This is part of what Paul is saying. You’re allowed to boast and enjoy the harvest of other people’s gratitude, other people’s worship. When we invest in his kingdom, we participate in the goodness and the beautiful project that God has been doing in the world.

And so we learn this. Generosity fuels gratitude and it strengthens our faith. Yes. That’s what’s doing that Paul wants for this church, but it also the faith of others. When we’re generous, we actually get to invest in the humanity and the praise that will be taking place all of eternity. And I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a beautiful gift to me.

In fact, there’s something in my soul that says, you know what? That’s what I was made for. I was made to gather up God’s grateful praise among the nations of the world. To go and find worshippers and gather them up and bring them to the kingdom and invest there. Now that’s an investment that our generosity can bring in.

And there’s one more little truth that I think Paul has for us here. Not only does it produce gratitude in us, it strengthens our faith and the faith of others. But it also does one more thing. Look at verse 14 and 15. And if their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surprising grace God has given to you.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. This is a very subtle little reference. It’s a call back to the previous chapter. I’m gonna leave this here, but he’s referencing back to an idea he deposited in the previous chapter. Look at 2 Corinthians 8, 9. For you know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that your, that, that you, through his poverty, might become rich.

See, Jesus practiced generosity. He was poor. Jesus practiced generosity, even though he was poor. And this blows my mind. As I was studying this week, I just, it just realized. This powerful reality, the generosity is at the center of the gospel. Generosity is the gospel. That the king of kings, the one who owns all of the universe he’s not this king who sits on a jewel encrusted throne or sits up on a high horse and says, I want you to give more to my resources, more taxes to my people so that I can build my kingdom.

No, he’s the one who steps down into humanity, becomes a homeless man and preaches about the goodness of his kingdom, and then is so generous that he gave his very life. Life for us, if that’s not generosity, I don’t know what is. And the other thing that it blew my mind is that it taught me that the principles of generosity, the power of generosity is so great that even Jesus leveraged it.

Jesus chose to use generosity as the means by which to bring us salvation. We give because God first gave us everything, freeing us from self reliance. We give because God first gave us everything. Our generosity is an overflow of how we learned to follow our Savior who gave everything. Our generosity is a reaction to His.

We give because God first gave us everything, freeing us from self reliance. See, Jesus leveraged the power of generosity to bring salvation to all of us. At the beginning of the message, I asked this question. Alright, made this statement, sorry. Anxiety about not having enough is one of humanity’s oldest predators.

So what is the remedy for this predator? How can we heal from this thing, this anxiety that plagues our souls? That makes us dumber? Generosity lifts the weight of self reliance and places it on the shoulders of a generous God. That’s love. Let’s not miss that. Generosity lifts the weight of self reliance.

It takes the pressure off of us, and it puts it back onto a generous king. That’s why Paul invites this church to be generous, and that’s why he invites us to be generous. It’s good for your soul. Generosity recalibrates our souls to the truly important things in life.

We know in our heads that money doesn’t solve everything, right? We’ve heard stories, we’ve watched movies, the really wealthy person who’s a jerk and loses his family or something like we’ve, we know in our heads, but deep down in our souls, sometimes we’re like, yeah, it doesn’t work in the movies.

It doesn’t work in these contexts. It didn’t work for that rich person. But deep down in my soul, I’m pretty sure if I had money. It would work for me like I don’t, no one would say that out loud, but we think that deep down in our bones, don’t we? I do. Sometimes it’s a struggle that I have.

We know this. It’s a head knowledge. But how do we make that something that we believe down to our core? How do we make it change our behavior? Generosity is one of the keys. I love this little show, Bluey, and this past week, Bluey, Highlighted something for me, and I just want to let you take a listen.

Don’t want a better life. I don’t want a better life. What wisdom. The innocence of a child has the ability to recognize that the beauty of life doesn’t come from a better job, a better house. You just love the story, or she just loved the stories and the life that she had. And I think that dad learns this too,

see we, oops, of course. So we see, we know when we see it unfold on a screen in front of us, we know that money isn’t the answer to everything. There’s something deeper, but it’s super difficult to believe. It’s super difficult to believe because we constantly feel like the pie is shrinking right in front of us.

And generosity has this unique power to help adults believe what Bluey believed. I don’t want a better life. Meaning, I want the life that God has. So this is an imitation. Now the strange reality is, I don’t know what this means for you. Because all of us have broken relationships with generosity, broken relationships with money in different ways.

So I’m just going to offer you these little bit of, little short suggestions. In just a moment, we’re going to invite the team back up. And I just want you to do some praying. Because I want you to decide before the presence of God, what’s this mean for you? What’s he inviting you uniquely into? Ask God to make make it a joyful thing.

Maybe for you, it’s just not joyful. Remember, the key to unlocking true generosity is cheerful giving. If it’s not cheerful, don’t give. You don’t need your money. If it’s not cheerful, don’t give

the elders here. I said that did Alex here. I said that. Okay. All right. So I’m trying to have my faith here because my salary comes from anyway. All right. We’ll say given in, given away, you can’t control or influence it. So we already talked about that one. Don’t always leverage. Maybe for some of you, your wealth is a way that you get to pull strings.

You get your way. You say, I don’t like what you’re doing, so I’m going to withhold my donations. I’m not a fan of how things are going, so I’ll withhold the donations. That’s not cheerful giving. That’s not generous. In fact, all it does is affirm that money does get everything I want. And it’s toxic to the soul.

So stop being generous if that’s the kind of giving you’re doing. I don’t know if that’s what it is for you, but ask God about that. If you are struggling financially, ask God for wisdom in how to be generous. Generous. Maybe you feel if I give right now, I’m stealing from my own children’s plates.

I don’t, that’s complicated. Jesus gets it, right? Again, he wants something for you in this. So my invitation to you is say, alright God, I feel wrong not giving. I feel wrong giving. Help me. Let this be a driver of prayer for you. Start a conversation with him about it. Maybe he will show you some other ways you can be generous.

Or maybe he’ll say, you know what, give it to me and watch me work, take giving off your autopilot. So maybe it’s not cheerful because it’s almost on the same level as paying for insurance. Like it just comes out of the account automatically, you don’t even think about it anymore. But you have in the back of your head check, I did the righteous thing.

Let it be cheerful for you. Maybe you need to, during this next time, I’m gonna actually invite Chris and Matt up, and they’re gonna just sing over us in this next time of prayer. I want you to pray one of these prayers, ask God about, I don’t know where it is for you, but maybe for you it’s saying, I’m gonna open up my phone, I’m gonna log into my bank account, and I’m gonna look at the amount.

I’m gonna say, God, quicken my soul, make me enjoy this. I don’t want it to be an afterthought. Maybe it’s not big enough to feel. And maybe if it was bigger, it’d be, or maybe it’s in the wrong place, or maybe you need to take off auto deposit. Churches hate it when you take off auto deposit auto debit, because it’s just really easy for us and we know the budget’s gonna happen.

But maybe, remember, God doesn’t need your money to, for South Fellowship Church to work. He doesn’t need it. So maybe for you to be cheerful, you need to cut a physical check so that you feel it and you pray over it and that sort of thing. So maybe that’s what it is for you. Test God’s generosity by trusting in him with yours.

Did you know that one of the only places it’s, God says do not test me, except in Malachi he invites us to test him in our generosity. He says, I dare you to out give me. There’s no way. You can’t out give me. You can’t out give me. If you’re investing in the kingdom, you may not be rich. You may even die of starvation, but I will fill your soul with such abundance that you cannot possibly imagine.

You cannot out give God. God dares us and he challenges us to test him in this area of church. So I don’t know which prayer you have to pray. I’m going to invite the prayer team up. If you want to pray with someone in process through this. Chris is just going to sing this song over us and pray one of these prayers.

What is it for you? God, help me be generous.