Generous (Part 1b)
Generous

Introduction: You’re listening to Generous, the 2008 Mars Hill Church Christmas sermon series. Pastor Mark Driscoll will be examining II Corinthians 8 and 9, which gives us an example to model our own giving by and helps us remember that Jesus is the most generous giver of all. For more audio and video content, please visit marshillchurch.org.

Pastor Driscoll: Now, the reason for this, Paul says, is that generosity enables equality. II Corinthians 8:13-15, here’s how he says it. “I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness, you’re abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that their may be fairness, as it is written:” – and he quotes the days of the exodus, when manna came from Heaven to feed God’s people – “as it is written: ‘Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.’”

Here’s what he is saying, that people matter to God. That people should matter to us. And that we should strive to help the poor, and those who are struggling. Why? Why? Because they matter to God. Do you know that every person is made in the image and likeness of God? There is equal dignity, value, and worth, regardless of income, regardless of gender, regardless of race, regardless of age.

Do you know that every Christian who belongs to Jesus stands equal in the site of God insofar as all of their sins are forgiven? God’s love is full poured out on them, and that their relationship with God doesn’t include first and second-class citizens in the family of God.

This equality means that because of Jesus, all Christians stand before God in the same place, equally loved, equally forgiven, equally cared for, equally treasured. This doesn’t mean that we all live in the same home. That we all wear the same shoes. That we all drive the same car. It’s not the communist vision, where the government doles out resources so that there is uniformity. But it’s the biblical vision, where apart from the government, God’s people share generously, so that those who have been entrusted with much are able to give much to help those who are struggling and in need.

This may include rebuke of those who are in financial dire straits because of sin. They’ve wasted money. They’ve been risky. They’ve gambled in various ways, sometimes through imprudent investments.

It doesn’t mean that because someone is struggling, we automatically assume that there’s no sin in their life. If there is sin, we speak to it. And we help them. And we serve them. But there are many people, as well, who struggle just because they’re working-class poor and times are tight, or they get hurt on the job. Or it’s the single mom, who’s pulling double duty for a mom and a dad. That there needs to be some concern for those who are hurting.

And what happens is, our generosity dries up as soon as we begin to struggle. Statistically, here’s what’s happening. I’ll read this to you from The Seattle Times. “Toys for Tots normally has $100,000.00 and 50,000 toys for Christmas time. This year, the organization has $3,000.00 and 5,000 toys. And they say, ‘We haven’t received a single bike this year.’” Okay, as Christians, we shouldn’t say, “The government needs to do something about that. As Christians, we shouldn’t say, “Rich people need to do something about that.” As Christians, we should say, “God, what do you want me to do about that? God, what’s my part?” This is our city. It’s our neighbor. It’s our opportunity.

I’ll give you guys a story. It’s a shaping series of experiences in my life. Here’s why this matters to me. I didn’t grow up in affluence. I was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota, in 1970. I come from a long line of red potato farmers, diesel mechanics, alcoholics, and wife beaters. It’s not a pretty story.

My mom and dad were married at about 20. They were Catholic, so they had me at 21. That’s how it works. There wasn’t economic viability in that area. There were no jobs. I came from real, abject, sincere poverty. I think when my dad got married, every piece of clothing he owned fit on one hanger. He moved by picking up a hangar.

For work, my mom and dad moved out to Spokane, where we had relatives, when I was a little boy. My dad was a union drywaller/construction worker. Guys ever seen a sheetrocker? It’s the boards that are hanging on the interior of your home. They’re really heavy, lots of dust. Guys carry ‘em on their back. I mean, it is a literally back-breaking laborer’s job. That was my dad. His name is Joe. Like Jesus, I got a construction worker dad named Joe.

My dad literally hung sheetrock for more than 20 years, till he snapped his spine, broke his back. Had to go in for reconstructive surgery. My dad’s shorter than he used to be because his spine is so compressed from carrying sheetrock for so many years that he’s lost inches on his height. My dad’s one of the hardest working men I’ve ever met.

When we were growing up in Spokane, I could still remember as a little boy, 3, 4, 5 years of age, before we moved to Seattle, my dad was gone a lot. And I asked mom one day, I said, “Where’s dad?” She said, “Well, honey, sometimes when there’s no work in our area, he has to go to other cities, other states, and dad has to work.”

My dad slept in his truck and slept on the stacks of sheet rock – would send the money home to my mom and I. He would sleep in the sleeping bag. He’d take a nap, get up and hang more sheetrock, cause the more sheetrock you hang, the more money you make. My dad didn’t gamble away our money. My dad didn’t drink away our money. My dad didn’t have hobbies and toys. My dad gave all his money to the family.

I still remember when my dad would come home, usually on the weekends. I’d get to see him and get time with him. And oftentimes, it was going to side jobs, evenings and weekends. He’d pick up any additional work he could, and we go in his pickup truck. I think it was a 1956 Chevy pickup truck.

It was an old pickup truck that my pop had, and that was my time to hang out with my dad, because he was workin’ in town instead of out of town. And I’d dress up like my pop. And so I had little brown, steel-toed construction worker boots. See, he made about three or four. I had jeans or overalls. I liked overalls cause my Grandpa George wore ‘em. I’d always wear a white T-shirt underneath, cause that’s what my dad wore, and he’d roll up cigarettes in his sleeve like Fonzie. I didn’t do that, but I looked like my dad otherwise.

I had a little steel lunchbox and a steel thermos. And I’d get in my pickup truck with my dad to go to his extra weekend jobs and hang out with my pop and play with my little tools and spend some time with him. And my good memories were in that pickup truck, being with my dad.

And when it was cold, this is before you had to wear the seatbelt all the time, I’d get down on the floor, right by the heater, and I just loved to feel the heat blasting in my face and keeping me warm. And I remember there were times that economically we really hit rock bottom.

I can still remember as a little boy taking pop cans with my mom to the grocery store to get change to buy food, cause we had nothing, literally, to eat. I remember eating a lot of macaroni and cheese out of the box. I remember sitting there one time, I had hot dog in my macaroni and cheese, and my mom didn’t. And I asked her why. She said, “‘Cause we only have one hot dog, and you need it. You need to grow.”

I’ll never forget the day that my dad sold his truck. This little guy – I remember somebody came to our house. I saw my dad sign a piece of paper. The man handed him money. My dad handed him the keys. The guy went out to get in the truck. I remember following the guy, and I remember him driving away in my dad’s pickup truck, and I remember crying.

I’m gonna have to ask my dad, he goes to Mars Hill, I’m still not sure how he got back and forth to work. I asked him, I said, “Dad, why’d you sell the truck?” He said, “Well, we have to pay the rent, and that’s all we have left to sell.”

We moved to Seattle. I was the oldest of five kids. My dad worked hard. My mom stayed home with the kids. We grew up in Sea-Tac, up the street from the strip clubs, first-generation immigrant neighborhood. Virtually no one spoke English. And I was the only kid – we were the only kids in the neighborhood who had a dad that lived with them. Nobody else had a dad. I had a dad.

And there was lots of drugs and gangs and violence. And some of the older sisters of my buddies starting doing prostitution and dancing at the clubs to make money. It was that neighborhood. And my mom wanted to make sure that we didn’t get into trouble, so she decided she would turn our home into the community center. All the kids would hang out at our house. They would eat at our house. We are broke, and my mom fed all the kids.

I could still remember winter time would come, you’d get one coat. We’d go to Sears Surplus, buy a discount coat. And my mom would always buy extra coats. I asked her, “Mom, why do we buy extra coats?” She said, “Well, this kid doesn’t have a coat, and this kid doesn’t have a coat, and this kid doesn’t have a coat, and this kid didn’t have a coat.” Tons of kids in our neighborhoods didn’t have one coat. She said, “So, we gotta get ‘em a coat.”

She’d buy extra shoes. “We’re gonna give ‘em shoes.” My mom was exceedingly generous, and my dad was okay with that. I grew up in a home where we didn’t have much. We were working-class poor. And we would feed, some days, dozens of kids in our home. We’d put shoes on their feet, coats on their back. And literally, I could still remember even as I got older, my dad selling stuff to pay the bills. And my mom taking the money to go buy a coat for some kid who doesn’t have a coat.

I grew up in this home that didn’t have much, but did have generosity. And it really marked in me a great appreciation for those who were generous. To this day, my folks still live in the same house. I go visit ‘em often, bring the grandkids over to hang out. It’s not uncommon that people come knock on the door. They’re now grown. These are kids that grew up in the neighborhood, and they drop by to see Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll, because they were sort of second parents, like aunts and uncles to the kids in the neighborhood.

They’ll bring by their kids to meet my folks. “Hey, thanks for feeding me. Thanks for the coat.” Generosity enables equality. And my fear for some of us is that when tough times come, we look to those who are doing better than we are, and we get jealous and greedy and covetous, rather than looking to those who are in need, asking God what sacrifices we could make to show that he loves them through us.

I don’t want you to hear, “This is something that we have to do so that God will love us.” I want you to hear that these are things we get to do because God loves us, and he’s been generous to us. And he wants us to share in his joy by being generous with others.

Now, I know at this point some of you will say, “But I don’t trust religion. I don’t trust Mars Hill. I don’t trust churches. How do I know that my finances are being well accounted for?” And Paul deals with that in his sixth point, we’ll pick up the rest next week, verses 13 through 15.

He says, “I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness, as it is written: ‘Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, whoever gathered little had no lack.’” Equality. How is that to be distributed?

Paul then says, “But thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus” – a fellow leader – “the same earnest care I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he is going to you of his own accord. With him, we are sending the brother who was famous among all the churches for his preaching of the Gospel” – we don’t know his name – “and not that only, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace” – money is an act of grace – “that is being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord himself, and to show our good will. We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us, for we aim at what is honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of man.

“And with them we are sending our brother, whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner, my fellow worker for your benefit; as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.”

Here’s what Paul is saying, “If you give to our ministry, we’re above reproach in our handling of your finances.” See, the worst thing is, is when the people are generous and the church is mismanaged. What Paul is saying, “I don’t touch the money. I don’t spend the money. I don’t oversee the money. Titus does, along with a financial team of other guys who are tested and approved, that everybody knows is really gifted at what they do.

We’ll deal with this in more detail next week. We do an internal audit. We do an external audit. Every year we get the highest marks for our audit. We set our salaries by a national standard. We have a very good working relationship with our bank. I assure you of this, we’re above reproach financially.

The guy who helps oversee a lot of this is your executive pastor, Tim Beltz. You’ll meet him next week. He’s got an MBA. He’s worked in not-for-profit management for more than 20 years. He was running an organization of almost $200 million a year when we hired him. He was going to come, but he’s got an icy driveway, and he’s stuck in West Seattle, in the providence of God. So, maybe he’ll be here next week. We’ll chopper him in.

And in addition, overseeing this – I don’t count the money. I don’t set the salaries. I am not chief financial officer. Pastor Jamie Munson, your lead pastor, I’ll bring out at this time, and I’m gonna ask him to share with you some of the internal details of where we’re at, where we’re going, what we have accomplished this year, what’s in store for next year, because to be honest with you, he’s got a far better handle on what’s going on financially in the church than I do. So take it away, Brother Jamie.

Pastor Munson: Sounds good, man. Mark can’t count to ten, so –

(Laughter)

Pastor Driscoll: Dude.

Pastor Munson: That was a low blow, I apologize.

Pastor Driscoll: Yeah, you’re little, man. I’ve been lifting. You don’t want to do that.

(Laughter)

Pastor Driscoll: I still read the Old Testament. I’m kidding. Jamie’s a good friend. His kids play at my house. We’re good.

Pastor Munson: We made a big switch last year to get Pastor Mark out of a lot of the management and the organization so he could focus on the preaching, the teaching, the writing – the stuff he really enjoys, that enthuses him, and that we all benefit from his gifts. Right?

So, we made the switch. I’m now the lead pastor of the church. So, I get to work with the board of directors and the other executive elders to manage the affairs of the church. To make sure that we’re on mission, that we’re using the resources and the leaders, and everything that God’s entrusted to us to produce as much fruit for the Gospel as we can.

And that’s our heart. That’s our goal. We want to see Seattle change. We want the Gospel to go out. We want people’s lives to be changed. And our money is such a big part of that.

And I’m convinced if we as Christians get this, and we get the giving to the church piece, and we get the piece about our whole life, it’s just an outflow or an outpouring of the generosity that God’s already given us, that we’ll turn this city upside down. That people will meet Jesus, and they’ll be blown away by the little gifts that come here and there. Whether it’s a good tip. Whether it’s a gift to the church. Whether it’s just opening up your house for hospitality to bring other people in, helping the single mom next door, whatever it is.

So, how we steward our money is a big part of that. We want to give you guys an update, just kinda where we’re at right now. So, our fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30 every year. So, we’re about halfway done with this year.

Up to this point, we have brought in $4.6 million. The bulk of that is all the giving from the body. And our expenses have been $4.8 million, which has produced about a net deficit of $200,000.00.

As Pastor Mark said, we’re actually in good shape compared to a lot of churches around the country. We would like though, however, to make up this deficit by the end of the year. That means our December giving and the year-end giving would have to be 1.2 million. If we do that, we’ll take care of our December needs. We’ll make up the deficit. And we’ll hit 2009 with a flush budget.

And that’s our goal. That’s our hope. That’s our prayer. And we’re asking you guys to pray through and think through how you might be able to help. What you might be able to do to help make that happen.

So, as we head, then, into 2009, we’re looking at reducing our budget and scaling back. We know that 2009 is going to be difficult. We’re looking at the economic turmoil across our country. We’re looking at some of the stories that are starting to crop up in Seattle, different things.

And so we want to be wise. We want to be prudent. We want to cut back so that we’re funding just the base operations. We want to continue to grow, because we believe this is a great time for people to meet Jesus, because the god of money is dying, and we want to give them the true God. We want them to meet Jesus.

And so, we’re reducing budget, scaling back. In some cases, that may mean we have to do some staff layoffs. That means we’ll have to fund the most important, the most core ministries to Mars Hill Church.

So, we’re just going through this pruning season of, “Okay, God. You want us to focus. How do we focus our energy and attention? Not circle the wagons. Not give up. Not push forward, because we do think there’s people that need to meet Jesus, but we are scaling back.

So, our budgeted giving for January through June will be $210,000.00 a week. That’s basically what we’ve averaged the last five months. So, we just took the last five months. We projected that forward, cut it back from our original budget. But we think that’s prudent. We think that’s wise.

We’d rather live within our means than rack up a big deficit, a huge debt. So, that’s our goal. That’s our hope. In the middle of that, then, we’re gonna continue to fund church planting and Vision Nationals.

We give 10 percent of our money away to church planting through the Acts 29 Network, so that other people, other churches, other areas of our country can have good churches that are started – Gospel-centered, Bible-teaching churches, and lots of people can meet Jesus.

I don’t know if you want to speak to us tonight?

Pastor Driscoll: Yeah, the big issue there is, the worst thing, when a church tells it’s people to be generous, and the church doesn’t do anything but just the ministry of the church.

Since our first year, we have given 10 percent of our dollars to church planting. The first year, we gave $9,000.00. This year, we’re gonna give about a million dollars to church planting.

We were tied as the most prolific church-planting church in America this last year. We won’t take credit for all the church plants. There’s many overseas and in the U.S., but in the U.S., through this cooperative partnership we have with other churches in Acts 29 that’s headquartered here, 200 churches are now in the network in the U.S.

Pastor Scott Thomas, who oversees all of this, says they’ll be at 500 churches in less than 3 years at current growth rates, just in the U.S. And then we’ll be at a thousand churches within seven years at current growth rates.

The goal is, the hope is that those churches will be running an average of 250 people each, for a quarter of a million people worshiping Jesus in churches that we have helped to serve and support and plant.

Okay, so at the end of the day, we celebrate that.

[Applause]

And so, we intend to continue to be a generous church. In addition to that, we fund the Resurgence. In addition to that, we help Vision Nationals. We have for ten years in Visakhapatnam, East India, a great ministry. There’s an orphanage, a Bible college, a seminary.

They take kids from the street – throw-away kids – lead them to Jesus. Give them a nice place to live. Give them a good education. Help them to go to university. Some go on to plant churches. We partner with ministries like that. We bought land for them. And we love partnering with organizations like that. We’re gonna keep doing that, in addition to benevolence money and helping those in need.

And Pastor Jamie’ll have the details next week, but in addition, we’ve got a couple hundred thousand dollars we’re gonna roll out we’ll tell you about next week, that we’re gonna give away to people in Seattle.

So, our whole goal in this is to not just tell our people to be generous, but as leadership in a church, set an example of generosity, so that we’re not hypocrites.

And so, sometimes the first thing to cut is cut everything that isn’t us, but that’s not generous. And so, those’ll be the last things that we want to cut is what we do for other people.

Pastor Munson: We want to set a good example in that, that we’re still tithing; we’re still giving. And when times get tough, we should still be generous to God. Because ultimately, it’s all his grace. It’s all blessings from him. It all belongs to him.

So, part of what we want for you guys in 2009 – we want to build a generous culture in our church. We give to the church faithfully. We take care of other people. We meet the needs of other people in our city that are less fortunate than us.

So, we’re all rich, and we need to have that world view as we go out and approach who needs what in our city. How can we bless? So, we also realize that there’s a lot of people in our church that are stuck in financial debt. They’re stuck in their sins. They can’t budget well. They can’t plan well. And we want to help on that, too.

USA Today says that nine out of ten consumers in their 30s are in debt of some sort. And that fits our demographics. So, we started a ministry called “The Financial Coaching Ministry.” All you have to do is e‑mail money@marshillchurch.org.

You can set up an appointment with a free, confidential budget coach to help you build a budget, give you a questionnaire. They’ll sort of assess where you’re at. They’ll talk through with you, “What are your goals? What are you planning to do?” And to help you put a plan to get there.

It’s free. It’s confidential. These are just other members of the church that are good with money. They’re good stewards. They have a good financial background, and they want to help you guys.

So, if you’re in a situation where you’re just stuck – you don’t know how to get out – debt, lack of a budget, whatever it is, do e‑mail money@marshillchurch.org. It’s simple. Again, it’s free. It’s confidential. I highly recommend you take advantage of that.

We’ve helped a couple hundred people just in the last two years that this ministry’s been going, and we expect to help a lot more in the coming months, as it is a tough time right now.

So, last piece I’ll hit is just, “How do we give at Mars Hill? How can I give?” We don’t pass the plate, as you’ve noticed, but we do have offering on Sunday. You can give in the communion baskets. As you take communion, there’s a little basket there. You can give at every campus that way.

You can also give through giving boxes that are in the foyer of every campus. We also have online and mail-in giving. If you want to take envelopes, we have those available in each foyer. You can mail your checks in, mid-week, while you’re doing your budget, while you’re paying your bills. Some people prefer that.

We also have online marshillchurch.org/give, just go to the main site. About half of our giving almost now comes from online donations. We’re not a cash culture. We’re not a checkbook culture. So a lot of people buy things online. They give online. A lot of people use that. So, we’d encourage you to do so mid-week.

We also do a thing called ACH. Many of you might be familiar with this. It’s sort of a bill-paying system. You can sign up and either on the 5th or the 20th of each month, the money can just be transferred directly from your account to Mars Hill’s account.

A lot of people like this because it’s easy. It’s consistent. It’s regular. They don’t have to remember. And then also, you can give stocks, property, other donations. You can give a stock donation. You can give a property donation.

We’ve had people donate property. We had a little lot in Ocean Shores one time donated to the church. So, those things, we sell those, and then just turn those into general fund money.

So, if you have any questions, you can e‑mail HYPERLINK “mailto:giving@marshillchurch.org” giving@marshillchurch.org. I’ll post this information on our blog this week, marshillchurch.org blog, along with the ACH form and all that stuff.

So, really, our heart again is that we would be a generous people. And so, this is how you can give. This is how you can participate. And really, it’s not about a couple of people carrying the weight for everyone. It’s about everyone doing their part. If you’re a broke college student, that may mean ten bucks a month.

If you’re a multimillionaire, that may mean significantly more than that. So, if we all do our part, and we all make that sacrifice, then we continue to preach the gospel. We continue to see lives transformed, which is, at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.

So, appreciate you guys. Love you guys.

Pastor Driscoll: I’ll close out. And thank you, buddy. Seriously. You and Tim are doing a good job.

Pastor Munson: You’re welcome.

Pastor Driscoll: And we’ll bring him up next week for some more details. So, thank you, bro.

Pastor Munson: Okay, thank you.

Pastor Driscoll: Close with this – big idea. Everything belongs to God. If you understand that, then everything else is absolutely changed in your life, particularly in your financial dealings. If everything belongs to God, then you’re not an owner, you’re a steward. It’s not your money that you’re giving away. It’s his money that you’re stewarding well.

I think it’s very easy for us to talk about the grace of God, and the grace of God, and the grace of God. And one of the ways we demonstrate it is with our generosity. That God has been gracious to us. That God has been generous to us.

And one of the ways that we show that, that we actually believe that, that we’ve experienced that, that we want to participate in that is through our generosity. And that shows up in our giving. To our church? Yes. To others? Yes. To other organizations? Yes. To individual people in need? Yes. To family, friends, co-workers in need? Yes. Yes.

I’ll close with this. Jesus says, “If I can trust you with a little, I can trust you with much.” Some of you say, “I can’t do anything.” And my answer would be, “Do something. Do something.” The whole context of Jesus’ words is, “If I could trust you with a little bit of money, I could trust you with more money.”

I believe that God likes to give resources to people who are generous. Not so that they can increase their standard of living, but so that they can increase their standard of giving.

I believe that God doesn’t lack resources, but sometimes he lacks faithful people to entrust them to. We don’t teach prosperity theology. We don’t believe prosperity theology. But we do believe and teach generosity theology. That whatever generosity looks like for you, that’s a good thing. That’s a God thing. That’s a Gospel thing.

And that God loves to entrust resources to generous people, and sometimes he allows them to continually increase their generosity. And why does God do this? ‘Cause he’s a taker? No, ‘cause he’s a giver.

He wants to give you the joy of participating in his generosity. Any of you that have ever had the opportunity of being generous, you know that it is associated with joy, because it’s an act of worship. And God wants us to share in his joy by participating in his generosity.

And so, when we give, it glorifies God. It’s an act of worship. It helps people. It’s a demonstration of love. And it gives us joy. Everyone wins when God’s people are generous.

And so, it’s at this point that we call you to respond to Jesus. You can give of your tithes and offerings. Partake of communion. What do we remember in communion? Jesus’ generosity – our God died, gave himself to pay the price for our sins.

In addition to that, some of you will be convicted, saying, “My budget’s out of control. I worship money and not Jesus. I need help.” This is a good time to apologize to Jesus, ask forgiveness and repentance, and covenant with us to get some help and to make some changes.

Let us serve you. Some of you are encouraged because your life isn’t totally wrecked financially, and you’re in a position to be generous, and it’s a good time to prayerfully consider what that looks like for you.

And for all, we’re going to call you to join us in singing to Jesus. Why? Because, just like the Macedonians, they’re poverty erupted in joy and generosity. Why? Because while everyone else is lamenting because their god has died, and he’s not resurrecting, our God is alive. His name is Jesus.

He’s still generous. He’s still forgiving sinners and loving people. Healing people. Blessing people. Caring for people. Providing for people. And our Jesus is alive and well. We don’t worship a dead god who can’t save.

And our joy is anchored in Christ, and so we respond out of worship and gratitude. So, I’ll bring out Brian. He’s got a few Christmas songs, one that he has written for you as well. I’m gonna ask you all to stand. I’ll transition our time in prayer.

And Mars Hill, if you are so willing, would you be willing to sing a few Christmas songs of gratitude?

Lord Jesus, thank you that you are God. That we’re not stuck with a false god, like money. A god, that when he dies, he can’t resurrect and help.

Jesus, you are a God who died, to generously give us forgiveness of sin, salvation, the Holy Spirit, eternal life, reconciled relationship wit the Father.

Jesus, we thank you that you are a generous giver. And God, in this season when people are giving and receiving gifts, may we remember the great giver, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his most generous gift of salvation.

Lord Jesus, we ask that you would give us the Holy Spirit to enable us to share in your joy of generosity. May we look for opportunities to help others in need.

May we particularly look for opportunities to help those who are not Christian. Those who don’t know the Bible. Those who don’t know the Lord Jesus.

And may our love of them, our generosity of them, our service of them be the beginning of their understanding of who our God is and how generous and gracious he is. And so please, Lord Jesus, help us not miss this wonderful opportunity. We ask it in your good name, as we now respond and worship to you, amen.