You can begin by offering God the first portion of your resources, whether that is 10% or simply a small, consistent amount. As you practice this principle of first, your heart will become oriented toward Him, naturally transforming you into a generous person. Let this week be the start of a habit where you give radically to others because you know how much grace you have received.
Welcome to the Real Church Podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
So now we're gonna get into the third and final message of the series, generous. You guys enjoyed this series so far? Yeah. So a couple people have at least. So generous, the first message we talked about, generous *God*.
We have a generous God. And we proved and we showed how he is generous, and because we have a generous God, and because if you've given your life to to Jesus, if you've given your life to him, then God lives in you. Therefore, we are generous, which is pretty amazing. Number 2, the second message we talked about, generous *church*. And we showed the end we were very transparent.
We showed the ins and outs of real church, and how we do generosity at real church, and what that looks like, and what it's looked like in the past even before we we we were a church. If you missed that, you wanna go to realchurch.us slash listen. Check out the podcast. It's pretty it's a lot of fun. And we also talked about the principle there of seed, time, and then a harvest.
Sow seed, wait some time, there's a harvest in every area of your life, and and so it was a big deal. And now today, we're gonna talk about the title is if we generous God, generous church today is generous people. So we finish with generous people. Now, God is a God of principle. Would you agree?
*God* sets principles in nature throughout creation that you can in Romans-1, it says that that his nature is clearly seen throughout creation, that you can tell who he is and how he does things. And as we see who he is and the the principles that he set in nature, we have a clear more clear understanding of who we were created to be. Because in Ephesians-5:1, as we pointed out last week, we are created to be imitators of God as dearly beloved children, which is pretty amazing in itself. So there's a principle of *generosity* that we're gonna talk about this principle that I guess would unlock, if you will, generosity in our heart if we understand it and if we know it, and we're gonna talk about that principle, dig deep into that principle. But before we do, I wanna share a couple of other things.
Number 1, you might have the question, why are you talking about this? Why are you talking about *generosity* so much? Why did you do a series on it? Why? I don't understand.
Well, let's go to 2 Corinthians-8. *2 Corinthians-8:7*. Maybe you're following along on your on your phone, realchurch.us, that this Sunday thing, you'll you should see the the notes and stuff there or in your Bible. But 2 Corinthians-8:7 says, but since you **excel in everything**, and I do believe you, real church, I believe you excel in everything. You're growing and you are learning to excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and sincerity there, and in love that we have kindled in you.
Look, I don't know about you guys, but I love I love our serve team. I love our dream team. I love every aspect of this church, because I just see people that are loving others genuinely. They're laying their life down for for for you guys. So as you walk onto this campus, you see our serve team, and it's genuine smiles and they genuinely care and they ask how you're doing and they offer you coffee or donuts or you should see them setting up in the morning.
I mean, it's hard work, but why do they do it? So that you can experience Jesus in a real way. They are sincerely and earnestly loving and excelling in faith because of that, and it's amazing. Real church is doing well with that. Yeah.
Give her yeah. Give our surf team a hand if you don't mind. Thank you, guys. And shameless plug, if you wanna be a part in any way of of serving at Real Church or being or learning who we are, we have next steps, which Christina alluded to. My wife will be teaching that after every service, after this service as well.
It's only about 35 minutes long, so so learn about what it means to be a part or to get involved with real church. But since you excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in love we have content kindled in you, see that you also excel in the *grace* of giving. *Generous* people in the grace of giving. You know, it is a grace to give. *Jesus* said it's better to give than to receive, and you might not think that, you might not feel that sometimes, but it is.
*Grace is getting what you don't deserve. If you understand that you've gotten what you don't deserve, then you realize that you can give what others don't deserve as well. There is a grace to giving, and we as a church not only need to excel in faith and excel in earnestness and in love* and all of those other things, but also to grow and excel in the grace of giving, of generosity. Crazy thing is, you know, people don't think Jesus like to talk about money, but as I've alluded to before, I've talked about before, Jesus talked about money about 4 times more money and possessions about 4 times more than any other topic, which is crazy. Why?
Because where your treasure is, there your "heart is also". Did did he care about your money? No. He cared about your heart. And where your treasure is, that's where your heart is.
So there's some more things. Why is it so important? Because the another thing that God said is, if you're faithful with a little, you've heard it, then he will entrust you with more. Why? Because if he can trust you to be faithful with a little, then he can trust you to be faithful with more.
Another little pithy saying, if you will, is is if God can give it through you, then he can give it to you. If God can give it through you, then he can give it to you. Okay. So so what is this principle that unlocks this this key of generosity? It's so important and so foundational, and maybe you've heard it before.
It is the principle of first. The principle of first. It's found throughout the scripture. It's found throughout the Bible. Maybe you've heard pastors talk about it, this the getting your priorities in order.
You know, you you've heard maybe this pyramid type of thing where at the top, imagine at the top, have this first foundation I mean, this first thing, God. You have to have God first in your life. If your priorities are out of order, then your life is out of order. Right? Maybe you've heard pastors say that or or teachers or a mentor or something like that say that in your life.
And and a lot of times they'll say, so God first, and then number 2 is family. Family second. You know, your wife, your kids, your your your husband, you know, things like that. And and and really, by the way guys, your church is your family as well because we're brothers and sisters in Christ. We're connected by the blood of Jesus, which is thicker than blood than our blood.
You know? So so, I mean, I have I have Christian brothers and sisters in in Africa, in India, in Mexico, in in Colombia that I've met, sat, and talked with, and I feel closer with them than I do some of my own extended family. Why? Because we're on the same page in Jesus, and that's amazing. And that once again, that that runs stronger than than some blood ties.
Like, your church family, you have your your your wife and your kids and and all of that. That's important, very important, but also your church family is too, connected by Jesus. So anyway, priority. This this pyramid of priority, you got God first, and then family second, and then work third, and then play fourth, and you get that in order, then you're right. Maybe you've heard a lot of people talk about that.
That just never really sat well with me. Because what it implies is in an area of your life, like, you know, churches would say, you you give God your first 10% of your finances, and then the other 90% is yours. It it just doesn't sit right with me. Or or or if you give God the first 30 minutes of your day, the first bit of your time, then the rest of your day is yours. It it almost is this implication that you you do your due diligence to put God first in this area, and then you can go on about your own business.
It just it makes more sense to me, or it made more sense to me before I started studying this for for God to be the center of your life. For for it to be a God centered life, for God to be the center of your finances, for God to be the center of your family, for God to be the center of the church relationships, for God to be the center of your play, God to be the center of your of all of your communication with people, God to be the center of all of that. And so it just I I never got it, and and there was some missing link there until I figured it out. It was a light bulb or something. It should go off over my head.
Let's turn to Romans-11:16. It says, if the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy. If the root is holy, so are the branches. And that sounds like a bunch of Christianese church lingo, so let me let's talk about it. If the part of the dough offered first is holy, what does holy mean?
*Holy means set apart to God*, like like devoted to God, then the whole thing is holy. So what you give first, everything else follows. Let me let me say it in in another way. What we put first in our life or in an area of our life is central to our life or central to that area of our life. Let me say it another way.
Whatever is first in our life, the rest of our life revolves around that. Practically speaking, if you if what is most important in your life, what is first in your life is your wife, then your whole life will revolve around your wife, and that's not healthy. Practically speaking, if what is first and most important in your life is your job, then every aspect, all of your decisions and everything will revolve around your job. If what is first in your life is your kids, it sounds good, but every aspect of your life will revolve around your kids, and it's not healthy. If what is first in your life is yourself, then every aspect of your life will revolve around yourself.
That's not healthy either. But if what is first in your life is holy, is set apart to God, then your whole life is holy and set apart to God. God wants to be the center of your life, and the way that he's the center of your life is he's first in your life. There's a connection. It's not separated.
It's both and. I've never seen that before. So in the pyramid of priorities then, if God is the first, then he is the center. So if God is that is the first, then he's the center of your family, then he's the center of your work, and he's the center of your play. With finances, because we're in the generosity series, if God is first with our money, then everything we do with our money will revolve around him, and so we can be radically generous as he is radically generous.
So how do we live out this principle of first? Let's go to Genesis. Gotta show it in the scripture. This is fun. *Genesis-4:1* through let's read 1 through 7.
Says Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, with the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man. Later, she gave birth to her his brother, Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.
And Abel Abel also brought an offering, fat portions, from the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor favor on Abel in his offering, but on Cain in his offering, he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you so angry? Why is your face downcast?
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must rule over it. So when you first read that, at first thought, Abel gave to God, Cain gave to God. Why didn't God accept both of them?
Why didn't God look at favor with both of them? I don't get it. Like, if we do something for God, doesn't God accept anything that we do for him? Shouldn't he accept anything we do for him? And emphatically, I want to tell you, absolutely not.
No. *Hebrews-11:6*. I mean, I know that's a common thought, but it's not reality. It's not truth. The Bible says truth, and let's point out truth for this situation because it's important for our life because it goes in line with the principle of first.
*Hebrews-11:6*, without faith, it is impossible to please *God* because you must believe that he exists. Anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists, and he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So anything that we do for him must be a result of faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by his word. So it must be a result of and a response to what he has spoken, to what he has said, either through scripture or through, you know, prayer or through others or whatever.
So faith is a result of hearing him. Okay? Then also, it says in Romans-14:23, anything not done in faith oh, this is huge. Anything not done in faith is sin. Anything not done in faith is sin.
So then what if we peel back the onion a little bit? What if we peel back the layers? What was it about Abel's offering and Cain's offering? Why did God accept Abel's and God reject Cain's? Let's look at it in a little bit of story mode, if you will, because I like to do that.
My wife my wife loves to do it, and I just love the way that she does it. So imagine Cain Cain's the firstborn. Adam and Eve have have Cain, and we the Bible doesn't say how far in between Cain and Abel, how many years in between them they are. That sounded weird. How many years there are in between them.
There we go. You know, is there 1 year? Is there 3 years? Is there 5 years? Is there 10 years?
We don't know. I mean, so let's just assume there's 3 to 5 years because it really doesn't matter there. And and so 3 to 5 years in between them. Now Cain being the firstborn, Adam as a father teaches Cain a skill because it's also something that they need to grow. The first thing he teaches them is is how to be a farmer.
He teaches them how to grow crops. And we know from later in scripture that Cain absolutely loved being a farmer. He loved producing fruit from the ground, because when God took it from him, he was distraught. So Cain loved his job. He loved what he did.
And then Abel comes along a few years later. Cain's probably already working the ground because Abel's younger, and it's time for daddy, for Adam, to teach Abel a skill. And so he's already taught his older son how to to work the ground and to do crops and stuff, so he teaches Abel how to be a shepherd. He teaches him because they have some flocks and stuff, and they they they, you know, use them for mead and use them for other things. So he teaches them how to be a shepherd.
Now in teaching a young boy how to be a shepherd when he's ready, he probably didn't give him all of his flocks, if we just had to assume. Right? He probably gave him a young couple of sheep, maybe a young couple of calves or something like that to raise. And of course, we're we're just imagining here kinda embellishing, if you will. So imagine if Abel were to raise these 2 sheep, or these couple of sheep and these couple of calves from birth or as little babies.
It it take a couple of years before they were ready to produce children, before they're ready to be pregnant. Right? But that's how flocks grow, they get pregnant. Now if if you ever have had an animal, and you took a lot of time raising that animal, and you took a lot of time, you really cared about it, you love the animal. You really do.
And so any children or any any babies that come from that animal, you care about them a whole lot. Now if we look at scripture, there's a difference in what happens here. In verse 3, it says, in the course of time, so we don't know how much long how much time, but in the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering fat portions, the NIV says, from some of the firstborn of his flock. The ESV, and actually the original text doesn't say some.
Alright? So he brought fast fat portions from the firstborn of his flock. Cain brought some, Abel brought the best from the first. We know that Cain didn't bring the best from the first of his field because it specifically points out that Abel brought the fat, the best from the first of his flock and doesn't say that about Cain. So Cain didn't bring the best, and Cain didn't bring the first, but Abel did.
So what is going on here? Let's think about it for a moment. If Abel is bringing the firstborn of his flock, then Abel that's the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a cow. Abel has no idea if that cow or that sheep is ever gonna produce again. So in giving the firstborn, Abel is saying to God, I trust you with my future.
I don't know if this is gonna produce again. I don't know what's gonna happen again, but I'm trusting you with my future. I'm trusting that you're gonna bless. I'm I'm trusting you with control. Abel, I mean, Cain on the other hand didn't give the first.
So what probably happened is Abel I mean, Cain gathered a lot of his corn, a lot of his his fruit and stuff, and made sure that he had enough for harvest until the next harvest season comes around. And then he had some overflow, and he gave some, not even the best, not even what he liked the most. He gave some of what he had to God, showing that he was in control of his future because he didn't give the first, and he didn't give the best, but he still gave some to God. Which one's faith? It doesn't take faith to give out of the overflow.
It takes faith to "give what's first". It doesn't take faith to give leftovers. It takes faith to give what's first and what's best. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Anything not done in faith is so there's this principle of first because in giving first, in allowing God to have the first, you're putting Him at the center of every aspect of your life.
And in giving God first of what comes in, we're trusting Him with our future, we're walking by faith, and we're putting him at the center of everything that comes after what we have given. So we give God the first. How do we live by principle of first? We give God the first. Why?
Number 1, because it takes faith to give God the first. Number 2, because our life centers around what is first, and God wants to be first. He wants to be the center of our life, of every area of our life, including our finances. So what does it look like for God to be the first in our finances? I'll tell you this.
I'll you what I know. It's not a certain dollar amount. Let me show you. Let's go to Mark-12, and this might this might catch you off guard. *Mark-12:41*.
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Hold on. Hold up. I thought Jesus didn't care. No.
No. Jesus is at the place where they're having service. He's watching the offering buckets, and he's checking them out. And watching who puts in what? I'm not gonna do that, guys.
I'll never do that ever. But he's watching who puts in what. Why? Because Jesus cares about your heart. Where your treasure is, your heart is also.
Now check out what it says. Many rich people threw in large amounts. That seems amazing. It seems like the more that you give, the better your heart is. Right?
I mean, that's that's no. But a poor widow came and put in 2 very small copper coins worth only a few cents, so like 2 pennies. Calling to his disciples, hey, boys, come over here. Jesus said, truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more into the treasury than all of the others. They all gave out of their wealth.
Think about Cain giving out of their abundance, giving over what's left over. They all gave out of their wealth, but she, "out of her poverty", put in everything. She was trusting God with control. All she had to live on. Now is it a sin to be rich?
No. It's a blessing. God wants to bless you with more. As you're faithful with a little, He blesses you with more. Why?
So you can be a blessing to others. It's a blessing. It's it's a joy. Is it is it better to be poor? No.
Not necessarily. I know so many poor people that have more greed than rich people. They're always looking and blaming blaming their, you know, their situation and everything on everybody else and saying, I wish I had what they had, and I wish I had what they had. No. No.
Be thankful for what you have. Be thankful for what you're given, and steward, it's a it's a biblical term, take care of, be faithful with what you have now, being thankful. And as you do, God will bless you with more so you can be generous on every occasion. So what was it? It was the faith.
1 was like Cain giving out of the surplus, but really staying in control because faith is not being in control. It's letting God have control. And the other was giving the best and the first to God. It was faith. So it all boils down to faith.
*God led generosity* is a step of *faith*. Now practically then, practically speaking, how do I give my first? Because we're talking about generous people. So I'm gonna preach this, then I'm gonna be radically transparent with my life because that's a core value of real church. Communicate transparently.
You can ask me if we ever have a meeting. You ever wanna have a meeting, go to coffee with me or whatever? You can ask me anything you want. I don't care. And I'm just gonna be completely honest and open.
Why? Because because that's how Jesus was, I believe. Transparency builds relationships. Any kind of guardedness in your in your relationship with your wife or your husband or friendships, any any lack of transparency is a lack of intimacy. It's a lack of closeness.
Period. So so with that then, as a church, we wanna communicate transparently in everything. And as an individual, that's part of our core values, communicating transparently. So practically then, how do I give my first? And what I tell you, I'm not saying anything to brag or to cut down or any anything like that.
I'm just telling you and like Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. You know? Period. I mean, so I've always and I'll I'll I'll tell you what, and I'll tell you why. I've always because I was I saw my dad, like I imagine Abel and Cain saw their dad, and they you do what you you see.
I saw my dad always give 10% of everything they made to to the local church. So when I started a job at 15 years old, 14 and 15 years old, I started giving 10% of everything I had to local church. Now later, I began to learn why why I do that, and I'll tell you why I do that. And ever all of my life with my wife, we always give at least, you know, at least 10% to our local church. Why?
Because the local church is the hope of the world. The local church is the hope of the world, and the church is the body of Christ. Alright? Church is the body of Christ. So therefore, if I'm giving 10% or the first 10% to the local church, then I'm giving that to God because it's the body of Christ.
Period. Number 2, where your treasure is, your heart is. So you can see where my heart is. My heart is with the body of Christ. My heart is with His bride.
My heart is with the church. 100%. And I'm giving that. Now you might ask, and this is might be a little different from what you've heard before. Why do you give at least 10%?
I'm glad you asked. It's my favorite part of this message. Why do you give at least 10%? Well, you have the Old Testament, and you have the New Testament. You have the Old Covenant, and you have the New Covenant.
K? Now in the Old Covenant, there was 613 laws. 613 is a lot. You might be familiar with the first 10. Thou shalt not something.
Thou shalt not this. Thou shalt not that. Right? Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not murder.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. Right? And then part of that, and a lot of churches would teach this, I won't go there, but a lot of churches will teach like tithing. It's 1 of the 613 laws there. Tithing is is you give the first 10% to the local storehouse or whatever that is, the the church, which is great, and there's a better way.
In the New Testament, so as you got the old covenant, and you got the new covenant. You got the old testament and the new testament. Nobody could follow all of the laws of the old testament. Nobody could. It pointed out our inability to follow them.
It pointed out our inability to to live a perfect life, so we were broken. So Jesus came and fulfilled the whole Old Testament, the whole Old Covenant, and now we're under the New Covenant, we're under Christ. So in Romans-6:14, look it up, It's awesome. It says, sin shall no longer be your master because you're not under the law, but "under grace". Sin shall no long could be your master because you're not under the law, but under grace.
Who is grace? Jesus. In 2 Corinthians-3:6, it shows that God's grace empowers us to live by the spirit of the law. He gave us a new heart. He said his laws would be written on our heart.
The Holy Spirit empowers us. Let me let me show you. Let me let me explain real practically. The law said do not commit adultery. I've given my life to Jesus.
*God's changed my heart*. So now, sir, you have an amazingly beautiful wife. Used to, I might commit lust in my heart with my eyes and with my mind. But now God's changed my heart from the inside out, and as I see Him, I'm becoming more like Jesus, and I'm learning to love people, and and love people better, and love people not just on the outside, but from the intentions of my heart. So now when I see you and I see your marriage and your and your amazingly beautiful wife, I don't wanna commit adultery with your wife.
I wanna bless your marriage. I wanna help you to have a better marriage. Why? Because Jesus is conforming me from the inside out to look more like him. Living from the intention, the spirit of the law.
Now number 2, what what about stealing? You know? Naturally, everybody steals and says, that's that's mine As a 2 year old. Right? A 2 year old naturally steals.
It's it's inbred in them because it's it's our nature. But when we're born again, we have a new nature. God changes us from the inside out. So now, sir, ma'am, I don't wanna steal from you. As I'm learning to be more like Jesus, I wanna give to you.
I wanna be radically Jesus radically generous because his spirit is empowering me and and and leading me in every aspect of my life, and it's changing me from the inside out. Does that make sense? Do not murder. I don't wanna murder you. I wanna help you.
I wanna bless your life. He's changing my heart from the inside out. We have a disagreement, and I get all aggravated. No. I learned to love well because he so with that, he's teaching us by his Holy Spirit to live from the intention of the law.
And what is the intention of tithing? The law of first. Giving God your first. Giving God your best. That came way before the 613 laws.
So with that, I will always, just like I don't want to steal, I will always I want to start. If I don't know where to start, I'll start with what it said. I'll start with giving my first 10%, but I'll pray, God, what is my best? What is my first? Because I want to give my first and I want to give my best.
I want to follow. Maybe 10% isn't your best. Maybe it is. Personally, there's been times in my life where God has led last year, for instance. And I'm telling you this not to I'm telling you this just as an example.
We gave our first 10% to the *church* because he's living us. He's teaching us to to give first to God. And as we give first to God, the rest of our life is oriented centered around him. The rest of our finances is centered around him, and he's teaching us to be radically generous as he is generous. So I gave the first we we gave the first 10 to God or to to our church, and then God led us to save another 10% just to give radically, randomly.
Crazy, So we wrote our check, the first 10%, and the second 10% we put in a random account and called it the giving account. Why? Because God is Jesus is radically generous, and he's teaching us to excel in the grace of giving. And so I remember there would be times when we'd be in the in the grocery store line, and and, you know, somebody would be about to buy this whole bunch of groceries, and they'd be to swipe their card, and and we'd run up and just swipe our credit card in front of them. And they, you know, the you know, imagine it was a lady or whatever, because we did it a lot.
We'd turn around and look and say, well, you know, what's going on? And and we'd say, just loves you so much. He cares about you. And we just felt led that we wanted to do this for you because *God's radically generous* and he loves you a lot, we just walk away. I remember there'd be times where we would be at a restaurant.
I don't know if you've ever been a server, I have. Man, church people are notoriously terrible tippers. Crazy though, because grace is giving what you don't deserve. Right? Getting what you don't deserve because he is gracious.
We are gracious. Anyway, so we have this money, like we've saved it. We've allotted it, it's already set aside to give. Like we're just looking for opportunities to be generous. Isn't that fun?
So we have a waitress that would be a terrible waitress, like just absolutely horrible, and she already knows that she's horrible. Right? So she's probably expecting less of a tip. And what do we do? $60 bill.
We give her a $60 tip. Why? Because we to do that, so we're just being obedient to that. And in that faith, he multiplies, but he also changes lives through his grace. Isn't that crazy?
What do you think that that waitress felt? What did you feel when you realized how much God had given to you that you didn't deserve? Oh my gosh. I'm forgiven? I don't oh my God.
Why did you do this? Because God loves you so much, and he thinks that you're amazing. Sometimes maybe you get to pray for them. Sometimes you get to lead them to Jesus. Sometimes they just walk away dumbfounded, and you walk away and let the Holy Spirit do his do his deal because the "Holy Spirit"'s awesome.
Why could we do that? Because we were giving *God* our first, and he was teaching our *heart* in every aspect of our finances to be oriented around him instead of around ourself. I think right now, right now, we we give our first 10% to real church, and then we have an extra 2% that we're saving up for giving. Just being obedient to what he tells us to do. Some of you, your "first and your best" might be 20%.
It might be 30%. Some of you it might you're like, there's no way I could do that. Well, start somewhere. It might be 2%, it might be 5%. I don't know.
But be consistent, be obedient, excel in the grace of giving. And as you are faithful with a little, he will give you more. And I'd love 1 day to be able to live off of 10% and just "be radically generous" with everything else. How cool would that be? How many lives would that change?
The principle of first orients our heart to God as the center of whatever area of our life. Let's pray. Lord God, I just thank you for who you are. I thank you for loving us. Maybe there's someone in here, as everybody's heads bowed, eyes are closed, maybe there's someone in here that's never experienced the love of God as it was talked about today, never put him first in their life, never surrendered their life to him, and they realize that it's time to do that right now because I see that he loves me and he's amazing.
If that's you, if you're ready to surrender your life to him for the first time, would you raise your hand? Anybody at all? Okay. Maybe there's people in here that there's areas of your life that you have not been putting him first, but you realize today that you want to put him first in every area of your life. If that's you, would you raise your hand?
I want to put God there's there's some areas of my life that I want to put God first in. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, when I pray that we all grow in our understanding of who you are, how much you love us, we grow in our understanding and desire, Lord, to put you first in every aspect of our life so that you're the center of our life so that when others see us, they see you. Lord, teach us to be radically generous people. Thank you, Jesus, for loving us.
Thank you, Father. Amen. Now before we dismiss, I have a surprise, something special for you guys, because I just wanna encourage generosity. So we have gift cards. We're gonna give every single 1 of you a gift card.
Some of them are $10. Every single person gets a gift card. Husband and wife, every individual. Some of them are $10, some of them are $15. And I want you this week, this is just to encourage the habit of giving.
So I don't want you to use this for yourself. I want you to find someone in your life, or someone that you don't know, it doesn't matter, and be radically generous. Be creative about it. Buy them something. You know, some of them are Starbucks gift cards.
Some of them are like a Mastercard, $15 gift card. Some of them are $10. Some of them are Walmart gift cards. But be creative. Be radically generous, and just tell that person God loves them or pray with them.
Invite them. There's a there's a invite card. Invite them to church. Just wanna encourage you guys to be generous people. Man, it's addicting.
As you start, you can't stop. So maybe use this start with the church's funds, and then maybe it'll carry over and do yours. It's gonna be amazing. *God*, I pray for every person that that they give to this week. Lord, I pray that it it just changes their lives.
Lord, they experience not only the person giving, not only person receiving, but also the person giving. They experience your love, and it and it orients our hearts to put you first. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks
for listening to the Real Church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or would like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching Real Church Clearwater or visit us online at www.realchurch.us. If you'd like to play a part in what we're doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
Go to realchurch.us and click the give button. Whether you're praying, giving, or serving with Real Church, you are playing a part every life being changed. Thank you. Until our next podcast, be blessed. We'll see you next time.