Why does God invite us to participate in meeting others' needs?
WATCH
Giving Grace, 2 of 4 from June 1st, 2025
"Giving is designed to improve the overall health of the entire body."
2 Corinthians 8:10-15 by Ryan Gagnon (@RyGagnon)
SUMMARY
This sermon explores the biblical concept of giving as a means to improve the overall health of the church body. It emphasizes that giving is not just about money, but also about time, talents, and resources. Pastor Ryan highlights how giving grows our discipline, teaches personal stewardship, and reflects God's economy of abundance. The sermon encourages Jesus-followers to move beyond intentions to actions, trust God's provision, and participate in His work of blessing others.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 What have you intended to do but you’ve allowed life to get in the way? How has God been speaking to you about this?
💬 How is your personal stewardship of God’s blessing in your life going? What if anything needs to change?
💬 How have you cared for the body in the past week? If you have a need are you communicating that need?
💬 How healthy is the body of Neighborhood Church?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
📖 Read 2 Corinthians 8:10-15
📖 The widow's gift (Mark 12:41-44)
📖 God providing bread from the sky (Exodus 16:1-18)
📎 God speaks light into existence (Genesis 1:3)
📎 God sets boundaries for the ocean (Job 38:11) or (Psalm 104:9)
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[The following transcript is automatically generated and may contain errors.]
Let me get that other one down.
So you guys thought I was the one who made the kids yell.
Oh, man.
Good morning, church, and welcome to our neighbors.
We're going to be continuing our series in giving grace in 2 Corinthians 8.
But before we jump into that, I just have a question.
like we talk about kids cleaning rooms, right?
Okay.
Why do we as parents ask kids to do this?
Like, what's the point of having a kid clean their room?
Well, what did, oh, I see a hand raised.
I appreciate
I'll take a stab at it.
You tell me if I miss anything.
It teaches them a ton of different skills.
It teaches them responsibility, accountability.
It gives them a sense of accomplishment when they actually get their room cleaned and it's something that they can own.
It helps in terms of actually, weirdly, in terms of mental health, right?
It helps when you're living in a clean place.
It's better for the child.
Did I hit it all?
There's that, too.
Now, as parents, though, how hard is it to get kids to clean their room?
Let's all collectively together.
I give you the opportunity now for the next two seconds.
We do this in condition to let's give out a groan.
One, two, three.
Right.
It's like the hardest thing you could ever do.
to ask a kid to clean their room.
It's so difficult to do.
And Miss Carolyn's like, no, not in my house.
I've seen her with kids and I'm telling you, she's a beast.
But it's so hard to do.
But this particular behavior, it not only helps the child, but it actually helps the overall health of the house.
If the room is clean, the kid who's in the room and is owning the cleanliness of the room is going to be more likely to help out with the family.
It's weird how this works.
So a kid who's cleaning up their room and keeps that clean and knows things go in a proper place, more often than not, I know this is a bit of a generality and some of you are going to be like, not in my house, but that kid will generally be more likely to not leave the milk out.
to not open up a cupboard and leave it open, at least until they're 12 to when you kick them out, right?
That's about the, I don't know, laugh on the kick out, right?
We got to hit some wounds there.
But what it does is it actually helps the overall health of the home.
When you have one room in your house that is just the doors closed because we don't go there, right?
Everyone knows it actually affects us.
It affects the overall health of our family.
And then as that kid grows up, that kid's learning those behaviors and something simple like keeping your room clean can be a big key in the development of a child.
So why am I talking about cleaning rooms?
What's the point?
Well, it's because we started a new series last week called Giving Grace.
And it's a series on giving, as Pastor Michael talked about.
That's part of what we're gonna be talking about here.
And we learned a couple of key things.
We learned giving is an essential part of God's work in us and through us.
We also learned the pattern of giving is God first, then others.
And then we finally learned that giving follows Jesus's example and how he's dealing with us.
Today, we're going to learn the purpose of giving, why it matters, and how God uses it.
Today, we're going to learn that giving is designed to improve the overall health of the entire body.
Giving is designed to improve the overall health of the entire body.
Now, let's make sure we're clear.
When I say body, what I'm talking about is the church body.
People that have decided to follow Jesus together, to be a part of a group of people inviting their neighbors to meet and follow Jesus.
So giving actually helps our overall health.
It helps the giver.
It helps the givee.
It helps the wealthy.
It helps the poor.
It helps all of those things.
It actually really affects how we interact with one another.
Now that all, you might be sitting here going, okay, Ryan, that sounds great.
Let's put it on a postcard and maybe put it up on the fridge.
But what does that really even mean?
Well, we're going to cover all of that today.
We're going to get into the text and we're going to dig in and we're going to learn again that giving is designed to improve the overall health of the entire body.
So let's jump in.
But before we do that, it's our custom to read the disciples' prayer together.
So I have it up on the slide here so everybody can read it together with me now.
We'll invite Jesus to continue interacting with us this morning.
Let's pray together out loud if you're comfortable.
Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
May your kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And do not let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
So let's go back in and let's make sure we understand the context of what we've been talking about through 2 Corinthians.
We've been going through 2 Corinthians.
We're going to continue to be doing that.
And this happens to be the next section.
So Pastor Michael did the first 10 verses last week.
We're going to reread through those and we're going to go through verse 15 this morning.
But context-wise, just make sure we're tracking with what's going on.
So the Corinthians, they get this letter, and there was a famine that was happening in the church in Jerusalem.
So the church in Jerusalem had a need.
That need was presented, and what they were working on doing is taking up an offering to go help the church that needed the help.
So this happened about a year ago before what we're going to read today.
So we're gonna jump in right now and we're gonna read all of those verses.
So all the way back to verse one.
So we're gonna go verse one through 15.
Verse one reads, we want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.
For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty had overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.
And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
Accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had started, so he should also complete among you this act of grace.
But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in all love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also.
Verse 8, And in this matter, I give you my judgment."
This benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also the desire to do it.
So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness and desiring it may be matched by completing it over to what you have.
For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.
For 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, and whoever gathered little had no lack.
So Paul is talking to them and he's giving them this overall idea of what this gift should be.
And he's encouraging them that these churches in Macedonia, they heard about what was happening in Jerusalem and Paul didn't really expect them to respond the way that they did.
They got fired up.
They saw a need and they had a desire to meet that need and they gave to it and they gave to it in a way that was just totally just a God thing because Paul's looking at it going, I didn't expect that.
That was even more far above and beyond what I could ever anticipate from churches that most people would consider probably very poor.
So he's writing to the Corinthians saying, hey, I want to encourage you that these other churches are already giving to the church in Jerusalem and they've gone above and beyond.
They have stepped up like crazy.
They are following Christ in this and it's really encouraging.
And I want to share that encouragement with you.
So there's three major things that we're going to learn here about giving over the next few minutes.
The first one that we're going to learn is that giving grows our discipline.
We see this in verses 10 and 11.
Let's read through that again.
And in this matter, I give my judgment.
This benefits you who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also to desire to do it.
So now finish doing it as well so that your readiness and desiring, it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.
So Paul starts off here by saying, hey, I wanted to remind you of a work that you started how long ago?
What?
One more time.
A year ago.
Okay.
In America, that's like 47 million crises ago.
Okay.
Like that was a year.
Can you remember a year ago?
Exactly.
Right.
This was, he's like, Hey, I just want to remind you of the good work that you started and had a desire to do.
A year ago, right?
That's okay.
That's something.
But he points out a couple of things that I think are very important.
He says, first, this is my judgment.
He's not commanding them to do it.
God used Paul to literally start this church.
He could write, do this, and they would probably listen, right?
but he's not compelling them out of an act of just do it.
He's saying to them, this is my judgment.
I've seen how God is moving in this.
And I just want to remind you that you had this readiness in you.
You had this willingness of mind and heart to help with this.
And that was really encouraging.
And then these Macedonian churches who I didn't even really expect were going to be able to do anything.
They stepped up like crazy.
And now I'm thinking about the church in Corinth
And a year ago, you guys seemed on fire to do this, and maybe it's not happening.
Just want to encourage you that like, hey, a year ago.
One more time, say it with me.
A year ago.
That just seems crazy, right?
How could these people, right?
We can very quickly get really, really judgmental about this stuff and take shots at the Corinthians.
But how could that be?
Well, it's intentions, right?
Don't we love that word?
Isn't intentions like the amazing word?
I intend to fill in the blank.
I intend to help you with that thing.
I intend to pray for you.
I intend to follow up with you about what God's doing in your life.
I intend to be a good friend to you.
I intend to encourage your marriage.
I intend to invite you over for dinner.
I intend to be a good, solid member of the body.
But a lot of stuff gets in the way.
And we can very easily just make that about us in 2025 with social media and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Church court didn't have any of that.
They did not have TikTok.
But life still got in the way.
What does that tell you?
It's the same.
Same problems.
Same problems.
Intentions are great to a point.
but they don't actually help.
Giving grows our discipline in listening to God.
So check this out, right?
Full disclosure, I used a little AI on this.
I was kind of excited about it.
So I was like, I was talking to AI.
I was like, hey, make me an illustration that shows someone wanting to help someone, but put a thought bubble up of all the stuff that's going on in their life that might keep them from helping.
And that's what I put up.
That's not bad, right?
Didn't use AI on any of the rest of it, just for the record.
But definitely use it on the picture, okay?
But that's so true of us.
Think about that.
What do you intend to do this week that God is calling you to do?
And what 50 stupid things are going to get in the way?
And you know what you're going to remember next Sunday?
That your intention meant nothing.
Nothing actually happened.
Maybe some of those stupid things got done.
And I'm not saying stupid just to be... Sometimes it's important, right?
Life is life.
I mean, a lot of that stuff's important.
Call rent.
I definitely did that.
Fix the leaky faucet, right?
Two leakies.
It's a double leaky faucet.
Call mom.
Okay, solid, right?
But all that stuff gets in the way, right?
Intentions aren't actions.
Say that with me.
Intentions aren't actions.
They're also not sufficient.
They are not sufficient.
What ends up happening with an intentional person that doesn't actually do anything is that's the person that frustrates the ever-loving snot out of you.
That's the person who's all about, yeah, I'll be there.
Yeah, I want to help you.
And the moment you're not in front of that person, everything changes.
But if we're honest, there's been plenty of times, probably within the last 72 hours that we've been that person, that we've done that.
Intentions without action bring hurt to the body.
When we see someone needing help, but we get caught up in our own life and what we need to accomplish, we forget the need for them.
And we focus on ourselves.
It hurts the overall health of the body.
It does not improve the body like it's supposed to.
Because remember, they had a desire to help.
Where do you think that desire came from?
These are believers.
They were being nudged by God.
Hey, you have the ability to help with this.
You should do that.
You should help with the church at Jerusalem.
That came from somewhere.
I'm going to bet God.
But then life got in the way.
What's God calling you to that you're intentionally wanting to do, but you haven't done it?
Say it with me.
A year ago.
That's what we're dealing with here.
But let's not pretend like it's just them.
It's totally us.
but it doesn't end there.
Let's move into verse 12.
For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.
What we're going to learn here is that God teaches us personal or giving, excuse me, teaches us personal stewardship.
So this is kind of interesting.
So going through this is like, because we think about giving and we think about God wants our best.
We want to give God our best.
We want to give, give in our offering.
We want to give in our talent.
We give in our treasure.
We want to give to God the best of what we have.
But you know what God wants?
What you're able to give.
God wants what you're able to give.
Say that with me.
God wants what you're able to give.
The goal of giving is not to hurt you.
It's not to put you behind the eight ball.
What it's a purpose for is to show that you trust God, that the same God who made it to where that check hit your bank account, because he's kind of the God of everything, that he's still going to be there.
God wants what you have the ability to give.
He says, for if the readiness was there, right?
That's that willingness of heart.
The readiness was there a year ago.
It is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.
What's acceptable to God is what you have the ability to give.
God approves and receives favorably a gift that is according to what you can do.
Think about the widow.
The widow from Mark chapter 12, she gave everything.
God saw what she gave, and there was all these others who gave a lot more.
Now you would think, okay, cool, that's going to help the budget a lot more, all these rich people.
But she gave essentially what was like a penny.
But God looked at it and said what she had the ability to give, she gave it.
And in God's economy, that's a lot more important.
In our economy, it makes no daggum sense.
Because somebody's got to pay for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
We don't think that way when we should.
But that's how God tells us that giving teaches us personal stewardship.
So Barnes, one of the commentators I was reading, this is what he wrote.
The obligation in giving is proportionate to the ability.
The giving should be voluntary and God-led.
A tyrant demands more than can be rendered.
Is God a tyrant?
Does the God of the universe ask you to give anything beyond what you have?
No, the whole point is the relationship.
He's not trying to put you in a tough spot.
He's trying to point to you and say, hey, I got you.
Do you trust me?
Do you trust that I'm in control of everything, including your finances?
that I can teach you discipline in the way that you give, because you know what you need?
If you're gonna actually like be really intentional about what you give, you have to be a good steward.
Once again, AI.
In God's economy, the value of the gift is based on the ability, not the size.
You need to have a good budget.
You're welcome.
You need to know what your numbers are.
You need to know your budget.
We're all, you guys are really into this.
This is great.
All right.
There you go.
Listen, listen.
That's how you know it's AI.
Be looking for that stuff.
But here's the thing.
You have to know where you really are to know what you can really give.
You have to know your finances.
You have to have a plan.
You have to have a budget.
And God, part of his giving set up with us is actually teaching us how to be more mature in the way we handle the gifts he's given us.
I love it.
We're pointing them out now.
This is great.
We tracking with that?
It's a hard one.
Who here loves to live by a budget?
It would be, that would make sense.
That makes sense.
Yes, okay.
Why?
It's freedom.
Ooh.
Why is it freedom?
Because if you have a budget, you know, where all the dollars go, and you give yourself freedom to spend a certain amount, and you can make that whatever it is to your will.
Yeah, exactly.
And a lot of us, if we're honest, right, we kind of ignore it.
We kind of just act like it's not a thing.
until the last couple of days of the month and we're like, how's this gonna work?
Yeah, seriously.
But if you're going to learn from God, if you're going to see what he has for you and you're giving, you got to know where your numbers are.
You have to understand it.
Giving teaches us personal stewardship.
But also remember this, because there's a side to this, that this could get really misapplied, because we're really good at rationalizing what I have the ability to give, right?
Oh, I'm good at that.
No, no, no.
I've run the numbers.
That's all I got.
And God's like, hold up.
Did you talk to me about that?
Or is that just what your spreadsheet said?
That's the tough part.
That's the tough part.
Is your giving led by God or led by our own insecurity about life?
Can we all collectively just go on that one?
That's tough, right?
That's tough.
And we're not giving is where we are right now.
We're talking about this particular group, the Corinthians and what they were dealing with, but this also applies to your time.
It also applies to the way that you serve because remember the overall point giving is designed to improve the overall health of the body.
Everything is a piece of this.
So are we being realistic and talking to the God of the universe who literally spoke and there was light, who said to the ocean, stop, and it listened?
Are we listening to him when it comes to our finances and what we have available and our time and what we have available?
Or are we listening to, well, I got a calendar.
My calendar says I don't have any more time.
My budget thing I made says I don't have any more time or any more money.
God's got to be a part of that because giving teaches us personal stewardship, but it has to come from God.
Amen?
All right.
We're going to continue now verses 13, 14, and 15.
For 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.
Paul continues by pointing out again that the giving is not designed to hurt them, but it's a blessing.
It's an opportunity to bless.
He reminds them that within the body, there are times when some experience poverty and some experience wealth.
So real quick, show of hands.
I think we're all friends here, right?
Who here has experienced some financial hardship in their life?
Who has experienced some surplus?
It's the same hands.
Funny how that works.
because there are times when there's an overflow of blessing and there are times when things are harder.
And what this says right here is the God of all is supplying our needs.
And the God of all who is in control of all, sometimes will give a surplus to some knowing that others are going through a tough time to provide you the opportunity to bless.
How cool is that?
How cool?
I like that budget.
That's great.
Because giving is how God takes care of everyone.
Again, he looked at the ocean and went, nah, dog, stop right there.
And the ocean went, aye, aye, captain.
He does not need your paycheck.
He doesn't need it.
He could speak and every bill will be paid in perpetuity forever.
He offers us to be a part of him blessing others.
That's the difference.
And we want to like make this like really kind of ambiguous or whatever, but no, that's what he says.
He says clearly there's going to be a time you Corinthians who are now in a good spot where you might be in a bad spot.
And the God of the universe is equipping you to help these folks over in Jerusalem to
And there may come a time when these folks in Jerusalem are going to have a surplus.
And then I'm going to call on them to help you over here in Corinth.
Meanwhile, just from an efficiency standpoint, he could just go boom.
But he invites us to help.
Because by listening to him and trusting him, we mature and we learn more about the God we serve.
We have a closer relationship with him.
Giving is a blessing to the giver.
That seems radical.
That seems nuts.
But it's godly.
and it's so, so, so true.
He invites us into this.
Now, there's a section here in verse 15, and he's making a reference to a second in Exodus, okay?
So if you guys want to flip there, you can.
I'm going to read it, but we're going to be in Exodus chapter 16.
So what's going on is the Israelites have come out of Egypt.
This is early on.
I think we're about like a week and a half on the trip, okay?
So
People are starting to annoy each other.
You know, like we're past the, we're no longer slaves in Egypt into, it's really hot.
And I don't have any food.
And what's going to happen here?
Because this all sounded great at the pep rally, but I don't have a tent.
I don't have a house.
What are we doing here?
We're going to read chapter 16, verse 1.
They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.
On the fifteenth day of the second month, after they had departed from the land of Egypt, and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
And the people of Israel said to them,
Would that we had died in the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by meat pots and ate bread for our fill.
For you've brought us into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
Then the Lord said to Moses, behold, I'm about to rain bread from heaven for you.
And the Lord shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.
On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.
So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel at evening, you should know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
And in the morning, you shall see the glory of the Lord because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord.
For what are we that you grumbled against us?
And Moses said, the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the fill because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him.
What are we?
Your grumbling is not against us, but is against the Lord.
Then Moses said to Aaron, say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, come near before the Lord for he has heard your grumbling.
And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.
And the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel.
Say to them, at twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.
Verse 13.
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.
And in the morning dew lay around the camp.
And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground.
When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, what is that?
For they did not know what it was.
And Moses said to them, it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
This is what the Lord has commanded.
Gather it, each one of you, as much as he can eat.
You shall each take an omer according to the number of persons that each of your tent has in it.
And the people of Israel did so.
They gathered some more, some less.
And here's the verse that we just referenced, verse 18.
But when they measured it with the omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack."
Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.
So he uses this reference to them to point out the truth that he had just said, that sometimes there's going to be a surplus and sometimes there's going to be a deficit.
And I am the Lord, your God, who've called you out of the land of Egypt.
And in a week and a half, you're already questioning me.
So you know what I'm going to do?
I'm gonna have quail show up, and they're gonna say, eat me.
First off, is that crazy?
That's nuts, right?
I'm gonna have bread just show up on the ground, and I'm gonna tell you to go out and pick up the bread and take it what you need for the people in your tent, take it back, and those who gathered a lot had none left, and those who gathered a little lacked nothing.
Because God's economy, he has control of a few things?
No, everything.
He is providing for their needs.
He has everything under control.
And over and over and over again in that passage, he said, so that you will know that I am the Lord.
You will know that I am the Lord because he does all of this.
Remember we talked about blessing.
We talked about offering, talked about the idea of him giving this to the opportunity to offer, to bless, because I will know, you will know that I am the Lord.
You know, when you know that he is the Lord, when you give and you're trusting that he still is under control and is going to be able to bless you and continue to help you with the next thing.
He's not just the God of this month.
He's the God of next.
He doesn't stop.
And this relationship of giving and learning helps us.
And it's how he takes care of everyone.
He's working on so many levels we can't understand.
So while you're giving and improving your relationship with him because you're understanding that he really has it all under control, it's not a fairy tale.
The person who's getting the blessing from that is getting a blessing from God that you gave, and God gave you that opportunity to give that blessing, and he's doing it all.
You know more about who God is.
They know more about who God is, all for the same reason, because he gave.
We keep thinking we give.
We don't give.
We acknowledge that it's already his.
That's what giving is.
It's acknowledging that everything is his.
It's not even mine to begin with.
And this section in Exodus clearly articulates that because you know when you find out that he's really in control when you ain't got any food.
And he makes quails walk up and say, eat me.
And he makes bread come down from heaven.
God has infinite supplies, yet he uses us for our benefit.
Earlier, I think we were praying in pray time, and somebody started singing, he's got the whole world in his hands.
And I was like, yeah, that's true.
It's true.
Every supply that we can think of, every resource that we can think of, whatever it is, oxygen, that's in his hands.
All of it is his.
And he has infinite supply.
If I die right now in this moment, God's fine.
God's okay.
I mean, I'll be with him.
I'll be great.
But like, it's fine.
He does not need my bank account.
He does not need my car.
He doesn't need anything that I can offer him.
Because he's got infinite supply.
Yet, he offers the opportunity to use those things for him.
Because again, he's working on all these different levels.
This is the God we serve.
A healthy body is in a state of constant gratitude.
Gratitude at the opportunity to give...
Gratitude at the opportunity to receive.
Gratitude at the opportunity to serve.
Because again, it all comes from him and it's a model from Christ.
Closing this out, Pastor Michael read this verse last week and we did it at the beginning again.
Remember the key verse from this section.
This is verse nine.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus that though he was rich, yet for your sake became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Everything we've just talked about, Jesus already modeled all of it.
He modeled every step of it for us.
He did it all for us ahead of time.
And literally all he's saying is, hey, remember that time that I did that thing with all those people?
Do that thing.
That's what he did.
He took on human flesh.
He came down to earth.
He lived with us.
What?
What?
were not that interesting, but he did it because he saw a need and met that need all with the goal of showing us how we would do that for others in the future.
That's the God we serve.
So closing it out, just got some questions for you.
First one, what have you intended to do, but you've allowed life to get in the way?
How has God been speaking to you about this?
How is your personal stewardship of God's blessing in your life going?
What, if anything, needs to change?
How have you cared for the body in the past week?
If you have a need, are you communicating that need?
And then finally, this is for all of us, how healthy is the body of neighborhood church?
Because a healthy body is a giving body, and we're not just talking about money.
A healthy body has a clean room
Not we got everything figured out, but as a clean room.
And when you step out of that room, you see the needs in the house.
And you step forward to try to help with those needs because you're following God.
Final big idea.
We talked about it earlier.
Giving is designed to improve the overall health of the entire body.
if we are in this place of giving and being given to and looking for opportunities to bless and then looking for opportunities to bless others.
And while all that's happening, we are in a state of constant gratitude to the God of the universe who put on human skin, led a sinless life, was killed, rose from the dead and promised that he will return.
Jesus is it.
That's the only way that you have a relationship with God is through that.
Everything else is fake.
Everything else is window dressing.
It's Jesus.
He did it for us.
He showed us the pattern of proper giving in that he gave his life.
And that giving of his life provided a blessing that we could then cling to, to give to others, to show them again that initial blessing, that initial gift.
That's God.
Let's keep our rooms clean.
Father in heaven, you are everything.
You are everything.
You are everything.
You are everything.
Thank you for what you sent your son down to do.
Thank you that he did it.
And Lord, thank you that that gift is eternal.
Lord, we submit ourselves to you and we know that we do not have it all figured out.
We don't even have some of it figured out.
We don't pretend to know what we're doing.
We don't pretend to be some perfect people.
We're the opposite.
We're busted.
We're selfish.
We're egotistical.
We're condescending.
But you loved us anyway.
You paid for all of that sin.
And then your son was resurrected to show that that payment was enough.
You conquered death so that we could live.
If there's anyone that sounded my voice, Lord, that does not know you, reveal yourself to them clearly, please.
Show them who you are.
Show them how you love them and show them what you have for them.
A plan of blessing that
not in the American sense where everything's figured out, but a plan of understanding that every good gift comes from you and it's all an opportunity to give it to someone else.
Thank you so much, Lord.
It's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
We'll take a couple of minutes and just reflect on how God's speaking this morning.
So if you put those questions back up.
And if there's a text message or a note you need to send, this is a good time to do that, just to make a note.
And so we'll take a few minutes of quiet, all the distractions kind of turned off for a few minutes to tune into how Jesus is speaking.
