Shadow Boxing | Giving | Full Experience

[Music] good morning everybody welcome to cctv let's all stand up together with our voices and worship together [Music] you are closer we can feel you moving everything presents in this moment together we believe here [Music] is he's [Music] give us focus so all of our attention is [Music] here the kingdom [Music] the labels we create cannot divide us the voices of this world will not define us for we believe your kingdom lives [Music] the labels we create cannot divide us the voices of this world will not defy us before we believe your kingdom is [Music] [Music] here here is right here [Music] [Applause] [Music] there is no shadow [Music] that has ever overcome your mind and there is no rival that could ever stand against your mind you've always been with every us you've already won but we've already won come on declare today here we go you've always been with us every battle you've already won before anyone i slipped it up together here we go [Music] show me one thing you can't do show me my city camera he's the god of the breakthrough when anything is possible i believe [Music] is possible there is a kingdom that's invested at the speed of light handing his kingdom [Music] he is faithful to revive who he's the god of the breakthrough when anything's possible do you believe it show me one thing's too high [Music] [Music] that our god can do anything nothing is impossible here we go now all of my fear i will turn into praise and shake off despair as i sing out your name or victory dance i will dance out in faith i dance i will dance [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] today foreign [Music] [Music] you're always working for us [Music] [Music] you will never change an anchor in the waves only you remain from age [Music] forever faithful forever true your ways are perfect you'll see me through forever [Music] you hold my [Music] king above all kings your name is great his name is ray god of all my days you don't make mistakes you [Music] forever faithful forever true you are forever [Music] i believe that your promise is true i trust you will i do that your promise is what you say you will do i play you're my faithful god he's been so faithful to me has he been faithful to as you've you faithful in your life with me forever faithful forever true your ways are perfect [Music] forever faithful you hold [Music] [Applause] oh god we're so grateful that that is true you are faithful you're not a god who has only been faithful or a god who is only faithful in the presence but you are a god who is forever faithful even though it's not easy to sing or live out at times god we pray that our worship would inform our mindset even today that our trust would be fully in you it's the name of jesus that we pray amen amen go and have a seat today forever faithful that's who we just sing that he is it's easier sometimes in our lives to sing about it than it is to live it out isn't it he is faithful that's who he is my wife and i have four kids and this past week was the one time a month that we go to costco you laugh because you know how fear inducing that trip can be for a family of six in total you walk through the aisles and you have your list of things that you need and then along the way you also see things that you need and i knew i was in for some trouble whenever my wife called me on her way home from costco and she said the cashier checking me out was so impressed that i could fit everything into one cart thought man we're gonna have a great time unloading the van whenever you get home it's gonna be good we got the van unloaded we got everything on the counter and i was genuinely in a little bit of shock and in awe of what it is that it takes for us to be able to go through an entire month and have the things that we need i'm one of four kids and so i instantly picked up my phone and i called my parents and i said thank you so much for all that you did to provide for us i am so sorry that i ever threw food away my bad i now understand what that meant even more than i did before now my kids probably today aren't going to walk downstairs and go to open the pantry and pull a granola bar out of the snack basket and come to me and say dad thank you so much for providing all of our needs and for being there when we need you the most this granola bar is a gift not reality but that's not why i provide for my family that's not why i want to give them the things that they need i want to provide for my kids because they're my kids and i'm their dad and i care so much about them having what they need and i'm grateful that we have a heavenly father who views us the exact same way he gives us the things that we need and it might not be monetarily it might be peace in a time of anxiety it might be comfort in a time of pain it might be physical things that we need but we sing to and we worship a father who is faithful and who is good to provide and no greater signal of that than that he sent his only son jesus to die and rise again three days later so that we would have life in him he is good and he sees you and he is with you and he is for you for no other reason than the fact that you are his child he made you in his image what a great reminder today as we continue to celebrate communion in this place let's reflect on the blessings that god has given us even the smallest things as we continue to worship him now let's continue through taking communion [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and place my hope in temporary [Music] whose name will never fade [Music] and if all i have is jesus i have a lightning and if all i have is jesus i have everything [Music] there is always peace the surpass is all i know in all i see cause you are my treasure worth more to me than what riches of this world could ever breed and if all i have is jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] you're [Music] just your voices come on and if all i have is [Music] yes we knew we [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't you realize that in a race everyone runs but only one person gets the prize so run to win all athletes are disciplined in their training they do it to win a prize that will fade away but we do it for an eternal prize so i run with purpose in every step i am not just shadow boxing well hello ccv it's good to be with you most of you know that i live in louisville kentucky and i guess it was about six weeks ago that mark moore was preaching at the church where i served for a long time and that same morning i was preaching about 30 miles away for a different church over in indiana but evidently in mark's sermon back at my home church that day he was teaching about the significance and the meaning of circumcision and then he went on and he said to this kentucky church where i preached for 30 years he says to this audience of thousands and for those of you who don't know what circumcision is the next time you see dave stone just go up and ask him so i'm 30 miles away preaching and of course i am totally unaware of what mark moore the wizard of words the prince of professors has said about me but when i finish preaching at this other church in indiana i innocently drive across the street from where i've preached to get something to eat but a family that i've never met is heading to their car and they had just heard me preach and so i got to meet them and we got to talking and while i'm meeting this nice couple and their three teenage daughters a 30 year old man gets out of a drive-through at another restaurant and he comes running up toward me and he is a total stranger and he stops and he gets right in front of me and says hey dave what can you tell me about circumcision you talk about an awkward moment this family is taken back i'm totally confused and caught off guard and i say not a whole lot you know and then the guy says it again dave what can you tell me about circumcision and he's giving me a look like you know what i'm talking about and i'm trying to give him a look back i don't know what you're talking about you're a weirdo slowly step away right and so the perplexed guy heads back to his car while this family that i've just met cautiously begins to slowly step away from me and they get in their car and they leave and it's a few hours later when i find out what mark moore had said and now i know the rest of the story but i have no way of finding that family and trying to explain to them what it happens so a big thank you to mark moore for his visit to our region i appreciate your friendship mark uh on a serious note he did do a great job at our church and our people loved him back there but when i was in that parking lot with that family you talk about an awkward moment for me and for this family and these church members but can i tell you something that's even more awkward for some church members it's when people come into a worship service and unbeknownst to them the pastor's topic for that day is on the subject of giving and in that awkward uncomfortable moment their head goes down their defenses go up because in their minds they'd rather have a root canal then then listen to a person talk about having a generous heart i mean anything but that talk about sexual purity ask me about circumcision in front of new friends right but don't cross the line and talk about my money and from a lot of years in ministry i've discovered that sometimes a topic can great against someone because it convicts them by the same token for those who are generous they love messages on giving because they have experienced the joy that it brings and they want to be challenged so today i want to talk about giving and we have been in a series called shadow boxing we completed today it's what a boxer will do to prepare for a fight but it's not the same as actually being in the action and we've learned that shadow boxing is the concept of being complacent in your faith and merely going through the motions and ashley and mark have challenged us in this series to get in the ring to get in the action to go deeper in our worship and sharing our faith and serving and being in community with one another but today i'd like to share with you three practical reasons why we should grow in our giving and each one of them they come straight from god's word here's number one god loves a cheerful giver in second corinthians chapter nine verse seven the apostle paul says 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 that word where we we get cheerful from comes from a greek word called hilarious and you know what we get from that it's it's hilarious so in other words when we give we should be bursting with joy to the point of laughter we can't contain ourselves it's it's outrageous it's counter cultural and yet we are happy to share with others and to return to god what already belongs to him and so the starting place is to examine ourselves why do we give are our motives pure and when we give can we really do what the apostle paul says and give not reluctantly but cheerfully two weeks ago beth and i were staying at a hotel in houston for a couple of nights and on the first night as we were heading out to go somewhere i stopped by the front desk and i said to the 40-something gal behind the desk i said hey i said would you like us to get you something we're going out and we've started doing this the last couple of years we really enjoy it we'll ask if anybody wants anything and i'm telling you what they they light up they're so excited and so appreciative so i said would you like anything she didn't miss a beach she didn't hesitate she said i'd like a frosty and some chicken nuggets and i like to dip my chicken nuggets in ranch dressing i said awesome so we kind of headed out and for us it's kind of like an adventure on behalf of the employee and we have so much fun with it and a little while later we returned with the goods and when i i handed it to her she said did you get the ranch dressing i said yes ma'am it's it's in there i promise and she kind of grunted a thank you just kind of said thanks and and that was about it and after beth and i were back in our room and we had been there for for some time eventually i said hey i said that gal at the front desk i said she she really wasn't real appreciative was she and when i said that beth joined in with me and she said she made no offer to pay for her food either before we got it or after we got it and i said you know what she didn't even act surprised when we offered she acted like she expected us to get it for her and beth said you know what bothered me was she even before she mumbled her thanks the very first thing that she said was did you get the ranch dressing and she was so worried about that now i don't know what we were expecting from her i don't know if i was expecting her to to walk us to our room and just say you will never know you will never know what your generous purchase of the 10 piece pile of poultry coupled with the chocolate frozen treat has meant to me in all of my years in the history of hotels no weary traveler has ever shown such generosity unselfishness or humility i 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 became i mean wendy's offers chicken nuggets in three different quantities and i don't want to make a big deal about this but i had chosen the largest size for her my therapist says it's healthy for me to talk about it and i said to beth i said hey if that's the gratitude that we get then i'm not going to offer to get her anything tomorrow night no soup for you but then there was a pause and then some silence and beth said you know her response shouldn't determine our giving and then she said i mean if it if it really is a gift we should give it to her regardless of if she's appreciative or not and beth was right and what i'm saying is if i only give when i think that the recipient will be grateful then i'm probably giving for the wrong reason and if my motives are to receive a pat on the back or some recognition or an attaboy then it's not truly a gift that i'm giving it's more of a method for self-exaltation or for feeding a prideful ego rather than a desire to bless someone webster defines a gift by saying 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 or notoriety or thanks that we receive you give a million dollars to a hospital and you say well they'd better name that wing after me you start double tithing and you think hey someone from the church better give me a phone call because that ain't chump change that i'm putting in the offering you buy a frosty and a large order of chicken nuggets for a hotel clerk and she better look you in the eyes and say thank you from the bottom of my heart thank you but aren't you grateful that god didn't give any qualifiers or contingencies before he sent the gift of his son jesus christ for god so loved the world that he gave i'm glad that before we surrendered our lives to christ he had already decided to gift 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 may god nice of you to live a perfect life and pay for our sins on the cross and all and oh yeah and the eternal life thing that's an important thing too thanks for that but where's the good paying job with health insurance that i have been asking you for i'm waiting and at times our apathetic and selfish response to god's ultimate gift must sound to our heavenly father like we're saying did you get the ranch dressing when the proper response should be falling on our knees in worship and gratitude and saying with the apostle paul thanks be to god for his indescribable gift and god's generosity should inspire us to want to be generous well here's a second reason to give and that is that the bible tells us it's more blessed to give than it is to receive that comes from the book of acts chapter 20 verse 35 where it says remembering the words the lord jesus himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive and like so many of jesus principles it sounds counterintuitive and yet it is so true giving is so fulfilling that word blessed means a joy that the world can't take away and the bible speaks of three different kinds of giving and the first type that it talks about begins all the way back in the book of genesis and that is tithing now tithing it literally means a tenth part it's talking about giving 10 of what you make to the lord's work and the strongest command comes out of the book of malachi where god himself is speaking and in malachi chapter 3 verses 8 and 10 god says will a man rob god 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 now don't misunderstand this where it talks about pouring out so much blessing a lot of times people say well that means that god's going to make me rich if i give to him that's not what it says god's blessings do not always take the form of financial blessings he can bless you in a variety of ways maybe that's one of them but maybe that's not but god will bless you in his way in his time and this passage on tithing is the only time in the entire bible where god ever says to us test me in this how profound this must be it's like he's daring us to allow him to prove his sovereignty and over in the new testament jesus himself commends the tithe in luke chapter 11 verse 42 woe to you pharisees because you give god a tenth of your mint rue and all other kinds of garden herbs but you neglect justice and the love of god you should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone the former refers back to the tithe and so jesus had the perfect opportunity on that day to rescind that old covenant commandment but instead he elevates the expectation in fact he says unless your righteousness surpasses that of the pharisees so he elevates the expectation and while the old covenant taught us tithing the new covenant teaches us generosity when we make when we give the first ten percent of our income back to the lord we make him the priority we acknowledge his lordship in our life and an all-seeing god notices that think of it like this tithing is a demonstration of our dependence on the divine and i can't i can't really explain exactly how it works but if you watch this video maybe they can explain it better than i can in 2016 we were both teaching in the same charter school in queen creek our children were three months old and two years old and they stayed with lauren's mother while we taught at the end of the school year my mother-in-law informed us that she would no longer be able to watch our kids due to health issues we found ourselves staring down the fork in the road that so many parents face whether lauren would stay at home as a mom or whether we'd have to put our two young kids in daycare we both prayed about it and felt led that lauren should stay home with our children what was far less clear was how we were going to get by on just one teacher's salary tyler budgets but tithing wasn't part of the picture back then as he looked at our bills outrageous family health insurance rates mandatory bi-weekly retirement and student loans we knew our small family could not survive on his salary alone plus we didn't qualify for state assistance tyler's family generously offered me a part-time stay-home job to help but we still needed a miracle to make ends meet over the next two years it was in that season that tyler felt challenged and encouraged by pastor ashley's tithing message we never doubted that the church would misuse funds the transparency in the messages and the efforts from the church that we'd seen made that crystal clear honestly we just couldn't wrap our heads around how to give out of an already strained budget we knew we couldn't do it alone so we asked god to help we learned to shop for what we needed versus what we wanted through weekly sales at the grocery store and clothes at second hand stores we learned to be totally aligned every week we tied ten percent of our gross income just trusting that god was with us as we changed so much to grow closer to him tithing has been a major blessing in our lives and our relationship with god things were especially tight in those two years but family and friends generously came to our aid we are private people and don't discuss our struggles publicly and yet the people around us donated items that we needed things they didn't even know we were longing for we trust that was god hearing our prayers normally finances put a ton of strain on a marriage but we didn't feel the pressure as much as we should have yes our life choices changed with fewer date nights and shifting our desires for big name brand things but tithing strengthened our family bond and grew our trust in god as we look back there's no way we should have survived nothing added up and we didn't just survive we flourished we thank god and encourage others to trust him to do the impossible if you surrender yourself place your needs at his feet and say i cannot do this without your help he's with you we tithe because we truly believe god can do more with ninety percent of our income than we can do on our own with a hundred percent we also give when we see a need so that we can bless others like others have blessed us first timothy 6 17 states command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth which is so uncertain but to put their hope in god who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment lord i can't do this without your help and tyler and lauren took a step of faith and they invited god into their finances and every dollar that you give here at ccv will be used to win people to christ to train believers to become disciples and to send disciples to impact the world and our giving enables the church to offer programs to give assistance to invite people into a relationship with jesus christ and perhaps one of the greatest joys of heaven will be that maybe we get to see the eternal fruit and the spiritual impact of our discipline tithing over the years maybe we'll get to see and meet people who are in heaven as a result of our giving and perhaps in heaven you'll get to see who is there because of of what you have have shared generously maybe that widow's thirty dollar a week gift over the course of of five years allows a dozen kids who otherwise couldn't go to camp to have that opportunity to go to the camp here at ccv in the summer and let's say that half of those kids make a commitment to jesus christ can you imagine the return on your investment that you would receive tithing is a great way to communicate that you are for the valley now another type of giving that's talked about in the bible is that a free will giving after your tithing to the church you'll probably want to add some ministries and causes that you have a heart for perhaps you're passionate about what they do or who they help and so you do what we call free will giving in the new testament we read about the the church in macedonia and how quick they were to help other people out in the book of second corinthians in chapter eight verses three and four it describes the macedonians it says for i can testify that they gave not only what they could afford but far more and they did it of their own free will they begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in jerusalem so the church in macedonia begged paul to pass the offering plate if this was in 2021 when the bible was being written we'd say they were saying please tell us the the website please tell us about your app so that we can give too we don't want to be deprived of this opportunity and free will giving allows you to be more specific with things that you have a heart for you find things that you have a passion for maybe it's ministries or causes that you you care about perhaps it's disaster relief or or new church planting or mission trips or helping those in afghanistan that have been displaced and ccv models the freewill giving of the macedonian church and through your generosity and the leader's prudent oversight it makes it more inviting for us to want to give here i'm thinking of the press on program that you had where you all gave 2 million to help with the counseling fees and in a variety of other ways for the mental health of people in this area during the trying times of the past year and a half another example of free will giving is is when you all gave over six million dollars in in the more than us initiative and ccv was able to pour into helping numerous churches in the valley free will giving is when you sponsor a child in colombia it's when you give to street light it's when you help a neighbor who is in need you know i've learned the most about free will giving from it's from your pastor ashley it wasn't from something that that he has said in a sermon it's from being a close friend and from watching his life and the way that he gives behind the scenes to help others in ways that you will never know maybe you could be an example like that to someone within your sphere of influence maybe you could set that example well the third type of biblical giving is that of sacrificial giving and sacrificial giving an example of that would be found in john chapter 12 where lazarus sister named mary they have this banquet in honor of jesus and she takes this expensive ointment that she breaks and she pours this ointment all over jesus feet and the bible tells us that it was worth a year's salary and judas is saying what a waste and jesus is saying what sacrifice you see there are just a few times in your life you can count them on one hand where you will feel compelled or prompted to do something like that that is a total stretch for you it's totally out of your comfort zone but you yourself know when you are being prompted to do it and it's one of those times where god just takes you out on a limb of faith and he says you got to trust me on this you got to trust me and it's more than tithing and it's more than free will giving it's just exponentially bigger within your own realm and based on your own personal finances sacrifice will always look different for each and every one of us maybe the largest sacrifice you'll ever be able to do will be to help someone go to college who could never go to college and so you save and you act as if they're your own and you help them do that or maybe you help a couple adopt a child or for a single mom it might be saving for a couple of years and then all of a sudden giving a thousand dollar gift to phoenix rescue mission maybe for a successful business executive it might be a a 200 000 gift to help on a new campus maybe for someone who has even more means than that it would be to give a large gift in order to enable an entire new campus to be started reaching people for christ those are rare moments in your giving journey they are over and above your normal tithes and offerings but sacrifice sacrifice is giving up something that you love for something that you love more sometimes it's planned sometimes it's spontaneous a few years ago our family was on vacation down in destin florida we went there for a number of summers in a row and on our first day in destin we were sitting at an intersection and the car in front of us was trying to turn left at a busy road but when the light turned yellow and then when the light turned red they didn't go on through the intersection instead they stopped and they backed up and we saw them coming toward us and i honked my horn but still they they rammed into us and a few minutes later an officer pulled up and we moved our cars over into a parking lot we started visiting with them and we learned that they had just moved to destin as a young couple and you could tell that they didn't really have a lot and then the guy shared with me that he had had another wreck recently and so we were talking some with him and the police officer says to me he says hey you know if you're going to file this with your insurance then i have to give him a ticket and then he's going to have to file it with his insurance so he says what do you want to do well we all kind of assessed it we thought it was about 400 worth of damage and so i said you know i don't want your insurance premiums to skyrocket i said you know what if you give me 200 bucks uh we'll we'll call it even and surprisingly he had 200 in cash on him which was probably his life savings and they were very grateful for the grace and they were extremely appreciative then we all got back in our cars and we headed on our way and we all ended up right back at the exact same intersection and we're watching this guy trying to turn left again and i'll never forget because my wife said stay back stay back but while i was sitting there behind him i was feeling pretty good about myself and i said to my family i said you know what i'm so glad that that we could bless them and my teenage son sam said well we didn't really bless him and i said what do you mean we didn't bless him he said we really didn't bless him he said you know what you'll do he said when we get back home you'll take that 200 you'll call up a buddy of yours that works at a body shop he'll discount the work down to 200 you'll give him the 200 it's a wash you're not out anything so you really didn't bless him i said well what what are you suggesting then and said you returned the 200 back to him and then we give him some money and every parent understands what we means right but that wasn't what he meant he said you give him his 200 back and then every one of us we give him all of the cash that we've got on us in our wallets in our purses whatever we have and that'll be a blessing to him and we all agreed i'd just gone to the atm before we left home so now i'm second guessing that decision so my daughter's getting everything out of her purse sam's getting everything out of his wallet my wife is saying i never carry cash so she's reaching for my wallet and enjoying taking everything out of it but while all this is going we're driving and we're following this couple so the next light turns red they stop sam pops out of our car runs up next to the guy's window freaks the guy out the guy puts his window down sam hands him this wad of cash and says jesus wants you to have this he bolts back to the car we honk and wave i whip a u-turn around we head the other direction and we never see him again but my family would tell you that that is our greatest memory of that entire vacation and although it was 10 years ago i can remember it like it was yesterday we derived more joy from that than that couple ever would and when jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive he was describing that type of joy that type of fulfillment that comes from when you let go and you freely share it's a joy that you experience when your your small group hears about one of the small group members who's lost their job and so you all rallied together and you say hey don't worry about your rent payment next month our group we we've got you covered it's the excitement that comes from buying someone's meal at a restaurant and getting out of there before they know that you've done it it's the thrill that you get from watching your friend unwrap a gift that you know is totally unexpected but but just what they wanted god loves a cheerful giver it's more blessed to give than to receive and the third biblical reason is simply you will reap what you sow galatians chapter 6 verse 7 do not be deceived god is not mocked a man reaps what he sows and no generous individual ever regrets giving rather than keeping sharing rather than hoarding because they know that they are sowing seeds and the christ follower desires to hold onto the things of this world quite loosely it's not wrong to have things especially if you use them to advance the gospel the bible gives us numerous examples and names of god's faithful who had plenty of stuff they just made certain that the stuff didn't have them and i have been around a lot of death beds in hospitals and in homes and i've heard a lot of comments in those final hours and yet there's one that i've never heard i've never heard a person say you know i gave too much away never been said 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 a pattern of making some very unwise choices my grandmother had passed away two years before my grandfather decided that he would take all the farm equipment all the family furniture all of my grandmother's belongings and he would sell them at a public auction to provide some cash for some luxuries that he wanted wise friends tried to talk sense into him but nothing would dissuade him i mean as you can imagine the the day of the auction was very emotional for the entire town seeing these personal items displayed i later learned that my my grandfather's five children were given no chance to purchase items beforehand even those of sentimental value and when his kids asked about them he looked at them and said you will have the opportunity to bid on them like everybody else and i vividly recall watching my uncle who was in his 40s bid three dollars to buy his childhood wagon where he had painted his name on the side it was a 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 so my mom really wanted to keep it in the family however a very determined antique dealer wanted to purchase it so that he could then resell it and through the course of time the bidding reached a point beyond my mom's self-imposed spending limit and when it did it was just more than she could bear and so she withdrew from the bidding and overcome by emotion and wounded by her father's insensitivity she just walked out of the auction area and the auctioneer continued the bids went higher but then a strange scene began to unfold as my older brother jeff who was in his mid-20s and who had absolutely no money and no earthly interest in quilts suddenly began bidding and the bids went higher and higher and soon the auctioneer said 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 and he said i love you and they hugged we cried and years later my brother would say i spent more than i really had i paid more than i probably should have but i never regretted buying that quilt you know what's cool about that story i discovered it this week while i was working on this sermon on the day that jeff gave mom that quilt she was merely reaping what she had sown you see all of his life my brother had witnessed my mom's generosity to the church my mom's generosity to others whenever my parents received any unexpected money or dad got a bonus at work they would tithe to the church and then they would give 25 percent to missionaries and then they would give the rest just to college students in need or randomly to someone who was hurting and her entire life mom was planting seeds of generosity in her sons you will always harvest what you have planted so here's my challenge if you are not tithing this week i would challenge you to pray about honoring god in that way for the next couple of months test god on this give it a try it takes all of five minutes to set up online giving i set up my online giving to ccv three years ago i did it in five minutes time if i can do it trust me you can do it just go to the app go to the website click on give here's the other challenge for the rest of you if you are already tithing then this week i challenge you to give something to someone who you have nothing to gain from in other words give a gift to someone who can't reciprocate that way your motives are pure maybe it's a tip you leave for a server maybe it's to someone you know who's in need but you give the gift anonymously maybe it's someone in line at the grocery store before you or behind you and you just surprise them and you pay everything and then you just walk out the door you know a sermon on giving shouldn't make you feel awkward unless it needs to but a sermon on giving should cause you to evaluate and do a personal inventory of your giving does your giving reflect your love for christ does it reflect your commitment to this church because when it comes to generosity you can slowly step away or you can lean into a life of generosity and if you do i promise you this it will be a fun thrilling exhilarating journey of faith let's pray dear god in heaven we thank you for your example of sacrificial giving thank you for giving up your one and only son we have no idea what that would feel like giving up your son so that we could have our sins forgiven and could have eternal life thank you for your model of generosity thanks be to god for your indescribable gift jesus christ and whose name we pray and all god's people said next week we're going to start a brand new series on the life of joseph you're not going to want to miss it have a great week thanks for being here

Channel: CCV (Christ's Church of the Valley)

Views: 380

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: christianity, faith, spirituality, church online, purpose, meaning of life, Jesus, Christ, God, church, ccv, ccv online, worship, worship music, Dave Stone, ccv music, here and now, religion, jesus

Id: SZn-qKttSKY

Length: 60min 55sec (3655 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021