Well, good morning and a Christian greetings to each and every one of you. It is good to be here this morning with you all. I invite you all to open your Bibles to Exodus chapter 35. Exodus chapter 35. When I was in high school, I went Black Friday shopping with a few of my friends at the local Best Buy store in Canton. And ironically, this was in the evening after Thanksgiving. And we, one of my friends, wanted a special deal that was happening as soon as the doors opened up. The first 50 people inside the store at midnight, when the doors opened up, would get a special deal on a certain electronic item that my friend was wanting. And he didn't want to miss out on this deal. And neither did the 100 plus other people that were standing in line in front of the store. There was a sense that there is not enough to go around for everyone. And that there's this sense of urgency that we have to get in at all costs. And at midnight, the doors opened up, and like a horde of barbarians, we all swarmed in there, every man for himself, uh sort of elbowing their way to the to to whatever aisle they wanted to get to. And I don't remember if he got what he was looking for, but I do remember the visceral feeling I had of the idea that I I want to I want to buy something. I don't want to miss out on whatever's happening here. Um like everybody else is getting a better deal, everybody else is is is coming out on top. And like there just is not enough. Jesus said life does not uh consist in the abundance of possessions. Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. The messages from the cultures uh the the messages from the culture around us would would have us believe that we don't actually have enough. Like we need more, just a little bit more. That if I only had a little bit more, I would finally be happy, I would finally be secure, I would finally feel fulfillment. And ironically, we have more than any previous generation throughout history, but we are also probably more unhappy and discontented and uh covetous and in bondage to greed and possessions than any previous generation. This discontentment leads to impulsive purchases online. Coveting what others have leads to me buying things that I don't actually really need. Greed leads to hoarding possessions that I'll probably never use and that don't really satisfy my deepest longings. Today I want to look at an alternative message found in the Bible, all throughout the Bible, but especially in the story that we're gonna look at today. Um the message is this message is a powerful key to uh helping push back and helping us overcome the tendencies uh of discontentment, greed, and over-accumulation. And that message is this gratitude leads to generosity. Gratitude leads to generosity. If you're like me, I I sometimes hear short, pithy sayings uh as almost like not serious or oversimplified or oversimplic. Like it's just like a little bumper sticker that doesn't really have a huge impact on my life. But I I truly believe that this is the key to helping us overcome the grip that uh that the lie of the enemy would have us believe that more is better and that more will make us happier. So we're gonna look at a story found in Exodus chapter 35. For those of you who are not uh uh from our church here this morning, we've been I've been preaching through the book of Exodus for the past, uh, I've lost track of time. It's it's been been years at this point now, and we're almost at the end of the book. But um if you if you if you just to summarize the the book of Exodus, uh you can sort of think of it in three different parts or movements. Part number one is deliverance. God delivers his people out of Egypt uh and and brings them to himself at Mount Sinai. Part number two, sort of the middle section of Exodus, is a focus on covenant. God meets his people at Mount Sinai, gives them the covenant, gives them the law, and then the last portion, which is what we're gonna spend the rest of our time in Exodus looking at, is the instructions and constru uh instructions for the building of the tabernacle, where God's presence will ultimately come to dwell with his people. So what we're gonna do is read Exodus 35, verses 4 through the end of the chapter and then and part of the way into chapter 36. If you look back, flip back a couple uh pages to Exodus chapter 32, uh, we had the incident of the golden calf. This this happened right after God had entered into a covenant with his people. And the first thing that happens after they agree to do what God has commanded them is that they uh go back to their old ways of worshiping uh idols, creating idols, and their hearts rebelling against God. We have Moses intercession right after that on their behalf. Israel uh repents and God accepts them back and renews in chapter 34, uh, God renews the covenant that they had just broken with the with the uh worship of the golden calf. So we just came through that. And the the next part which we're gonna look at today is the instructions and the well, today the contributions for the building of the tabernacle. As we read this, I want you guys to pull out your pens or pencils and circle or underline every time you see come across the word heart or contribution, and then any other interesting words that that you you you you find um heart or contribution or spirit. Alright, let's let's uh pick up right here. Verse 4. Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, this is the thing that the Lord has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution, gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen, goat's hair, tanned ramskins, and goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense, and onic stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breast piece. Verses 10 uh down through 19, I'm gonna I'm not gonna read this, but essentially is laying out what is going to be built with the contributions that that the Israelites bring uh for the tabernacle. It's gonna be the the the tabernacle itself, uh the structure, the poles, the tent, uh, and then all of the instruments or articles within the tabernacle, uh the instruments and and um articles of worship for the work of the priesthood and uh for for all the furnishings there. Uh skipping down to verse 20. So Moses lays out this this, or God tells the people, this is what you're to bring. Verse 20, then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses, and they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments. So they came, both men and women, all who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings, and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to the Lord. And everyone who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen, and goat's hair, or tanned ramskins, or goat skins, brought them. Everyone who could make a contribution of silver and bronze brought it as the Lord's contribution, and everyone who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it, and every skilful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. All the women whose heart hearts stirred them to use their skills spun the goat's hair, and the leaders brought onic stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breast piece, for spices and oil and light, for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense. All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose hearts moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a free will offering to the Lord. I'm gonna pause right there. Uh for now, we'll we'll pick up a little bit later with the uh the following verses. The first thing I want to look at is what Israel contributed. What Israel contributed. Number one, they what they brought was resources. Uh, you look at this tremendously long, detailed list of resources that Israel brought. Um goats, skins, uh, wood, precious metals, fine clothing or cloth, expensive wood, a breast uh breast piece or stones for the breast piece, uh jewelry. And what I what's striking to me is that this was in a time before Amazon Prime. This was this was before you could just like next day deliver uh you know, say some some some you know goat's skin um piece of leather for the to contribute to the tent. And there's a there's been guesstimates or estimates made on what was the total value today of what the tabernacle and all its furnishings uh come up to. And you can on the low end, it's like 70 million up to like a hundred, a little over a hundred million of in today's value of of all the things that were contributed for the tabernacle. They brought resources. Okay, just actually a couple interesting statistics here was the uh with just the precious metals themselves, the bronze, there was about around 5,000 pounds of bronze that were contributed. Uh with silver, there was about 7,500 pounds of silver, and then around a little over 2,000 pounds of gold that people brought. That was just those three items. They brought, I think what was uh interesting as far as what Israel contributed was they brought resources and what they contributed was time. Number two was time. All of these items represent a significant amount of time that that uh it took to to uh to collect or to create or to to prepare all of these items. I just bought a new work coat at Tractor Supply, Carhartt. Um and it's just like the most comfortable, uh it's just the finest coat I've I've had for work, probably ever. Um I did a little research on what it would take, uh what it would have taken an ancient Israelite woman to make uh a winter coat back in uh in their in their, I guess in ancient Israel. And this was an extensive process that took months to create a coat, one coat, for uh for someone. There was it's a sort of a five-step process. One was the wool preparation where you would have to shear or pluck whatever animal you're gonna use. Uh there was removing the dirt, impurities, uh, aligning the fibers to prepare it for spinning. Step number two was spinning the yarn. And that, again, uh I don't know anything about this process. I can sort of picture what this was was all about, but spinning the yarn, again, weeks to months for this process. Uh step number three was dying the spun yarn. You think of Joseph's coat, or the coat of many colors, uh, how many different steps of dyeing it took to do that. Step number four was actually weaving the fabric. And this took several days to several weeks of dedicated work on a weaver's loom. And then step number five was actually sewing and finishing the coat. It's a few days of careful cutting and sort of hand sewing. This is for one single coat. And imagine most of these families had 10 plus children. Um this was a lengthy process that involved uh dedicated work. And you see the amount of time that's represented in these items that that Israel brings. And I love that God uh that that God instructs, or that the the detail of both men and women, how that they brought what they what they had. Uh everyone had a chance to contribute to the building of the tabernacle. Step number three, or the the third thing that Israel contributed was skill. Skill. If you look down, let's let's pick up in verse 30. Then Moses said to the people of Israel, see, the Lord has called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship. It honestly sounds like some of the Amish contractors that I that I know in the area here, to devise artistic designs to work in gold and silver and bronze, uh, in cutting stones for setting and carving wood for work in every skilled craft. And he inspired him to teach both him and Holiab, the son of uh Hasamash of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver. Um, and it continues to go on there. Uh these these men, I imagine, uh, learned their skills working for Pharaoh in Egypt. These were stone cutters, bricklayers that probably uh dedicated their service to the empire of Pharaoh. Uh the the the gold workers, I imagine, the the guys working with silver and bronze and gold, who knows, might have been making idols back in Egypt for the worship of Egypt's gods. Here, God is calling them to use the skills that He's given them to contribute to His future dwelling place. How cool is that that they get to use the skills that God has given them. And it's very specific. God says that God filled them with skill. Um, we often think, I often think of myself as as if I'm gonna learn a skill, I'm gonna learn it from either as a mentor or a uh in person or on YouTube. And if I learn a skill, it's like I've that self-attained. I I taught myself, I learned this myself. But here we see it's actually God who who filled these men with with skill. So they contributed their skill. And they brought what they brought was uh we just covered what they brought. I wanted to look at uh how uh how Israel contributed. We looked at what Israel contributed, but let's focus now on how they contributed these these items. I asked you all to underline or circle the word heart. Um how many times did the word heart appear in the words that or in the verses that we that we just covered? Five? Okay. Yes, just just in uh chapter 30 35, and it continues to go on in verse 30 in chapter 36, we see uh heart appear a couple more times. God is not as concerned about what you give as to how you give it. God is not as concerned about what you give as to how you give. He made it clear that he wanted uh he wanted the people to give out of a generous and willing heart. He outlined what was to be brought, but he wanted the the people to move on their own in their with uh out of the out of a heart that was willing and generous. Martin Luther has a quote that says, The heart of the giver makes the gift dear and precious. They uh they could they came with such a heart of willingness that we see later on in verse in chapter 36, they had to be restrained because they had so much. Let's let's pick up in ver in chapter 36. Verse 3. And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him free will offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, The people bring much more than enough for the doing, for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do. So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp. Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary. This is amazing to me, these these next words. So the people were restrained from bringing. When I think of the word restrained, I think of like holding back my toddler from from doing something destructive. Like they had to be held back from giving or from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work and more. What a picture of abundance. What a picture of generous outpouring, uh, of hearts that were just moved to give above and beyond even what God had asked of them. I love that. The question I want to ask is what motivated Israel's generosity? What motivated Israel's generosity? What caused this overwhelming outpouring of generosity? I believe it's not spelled out specifically, but I believe that Israel was motivated by gratitude. Gratitude for God's grace in their lives. First, he had delivered them out of Egypt from slavery. Uh, then he had delivered them from uh from the Egyptians at the Red Sea. He brought them into a covenant relationship, he gave them the law. And then in Exodus 32, after they break the covenant by ironically contributing gold and and precious metals for the for the making of a golden calf, you know, the materials that were to be given for the tabernacle, God's dwelling place, in that moment, God could have completely wiped them off the face of the of the wilderness map. He could have been done with them. But because of his long-suffering grace and love, he didn't give up on them. He gave them a second chance. He spared them and he restored what had been broken by their sin. And I believe that that their gratitude for what God had done led to this generous outpouring. Gratitude leads to generosity. Gratitude simply, uh, a definition maybe of gratitude is simply the act of being grateful or thankful for what one has, appreciative for what one has received. One author defines it as finding goodwill in all things. And interestingly, the English word gratitude finds its root in the Latin word gratis, which uh which is also where we get the word grace. Grace. Gratitude leads to generosity. Studies have shown consistently that grateful people uh tend to be generous people. Uh grateful people tend to be generous people. And in fact, the two are actually uh uh causally related. Um there's uh a term by the uh Christian author Matt Ham, and he writes about what what he terms the gratitude generosity cycle. The gratitude-generosity cycle. And it I see it play out in in here, maybe I'm reading too much into this, but uh but I see it playing out here, and I also see as a theme throughout throughout the rest of Scripture, how that when when someone experiences gratitude for what God has done, it pours out in acts of generosity. So the first step in this in this uh cycle is if I can get my my uh my my little cycle uh straight here. The first step is gratitude. As we he he writes, he says, as we begin to understand what we've been given, gratitude grows. As it expands, we learn to cultivate an abundance mindset. An abundance mindset sees endless possibilities and blessings. Gratitude chooses to see what we have while entitlement chooses to focus on what we don't have. So our first step is gratitude. Israel experience this when God delivers them, when he he um gives them a second chance and re-enters and renews the covenant. And that gratitude leads to generosity. And Israel's generosity flows out of that heart of gratitude. And we see that's how they how how they respond. Generosity, when we give out of a willing heart, out of a heart of gratitude, leads to positive reinforcement. Or what some people have called or um a helper's high, a helper's high. And maybe a real life example of this, a simple example of this is um I don't know how many of you have ever been at a McDonald's drive-thru. I have all the time, but uh, and you get to the to the window, maybe you order a hash brown and and a McGriddle and a and a coffee, and the the person at the window says, Hey, your bill's already taken care of. The car in front of you paid for your meal. And you're like, I should have got two hash browns. But uh that fills you, receiving that gift fills you with with gratitude. You're like, oh man, how how awesome is that? I feel so blessed. I feel so grateful for that. And it leads you uh to to overflow, that gratitude overflows into generosity again. So you're like, you know what? I feel so blessed. I'm gonna bless the person behind me. Go ahead and pay for his meal, and then he ends up, you know, end up getting a$50 plus dollar charge on your credit card. Um, but that that generosity, you're like, you it uh leads to a positive reinforcement or a or a helper's high where you feel really good about the fact that you just you just made somebody else's day. You get to experience the joy that comes with giving. Uh and it's it's very satisfying for for the giver and for the one who received. Um you you might experience this when you give a gift to your child, just uh of emotions of positive emotions of enjoyment. Gratitude leads to generosity. So that those positive feelings just cause you to give again. You leave the drive-thru and you're like, you know what? I'm gonna go bless somebody else's day now. I'm gonna look where else I can give today, where else I can be generous today. And it it leads to this chain reaction of generosity. Christina Carnes, in an article called Why a Grateful Brain Is a Giving One, writes this. In a sense, gratitude seems to prepare the brain for generosity. Counting blessings is quite different than counting your cash, because gratitude, just as philosophers and psychologists predict, point us toward moral behaviors, reciprocity, and a pay it forward motivations. Apparently our brain literally makes us feel richer when others do well. Perhaps this is why researchers have observed that grateful people give more. Gratitude might be good for us, but it is good for others as well. Gratitude leads to generosity. We see this in the story of Zacchaeus. Turn uh flip forward to to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. Zacchaeus encounter with with Jesus. Zacchaeus was was used to living out the the messages of uh or the the lies that that Satan uh causes us to believe that more is better, more at all costs is better, that if I only have a little bit more, I am going to be happy and fulfilled. And it led to the destruction of all of his relationships. It led to him probably feeling a lot of shame and and guilt. And one day he he finds out that Jesus is is is gonna be coming uh down, uh gonna be passing through wherever he's stationed. And he's he's short and he's like, Well, I I have to see this Jesus. So he runs over to, I don't know, maybe the I don't know what a sycamore tree looks like, but I imagine it looked like this, but just maybe five times bigger. He crawls up into the tree and he's like, he looks out, he's watching and watching and watching. Way down there comes Jesus walking his way. And Jesus comes up to him and says, Zacchaeus, come down, for I want to come and eat at your house today. So Zacchaeus jumps down and verse 6 says he heard hurried hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they had when they had saw it, they all grumbled, all the the people that were watching around him. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Everyone around him, uh around Zacchaeus knew his reputation. And they all they all they probably despised him. This was somebody who cheated them, who uh who wronged them. Uh he didn't have any friends. And something about his experience with Jesus, something about the love and the grace that Jesus showed him, uh, caused him to respond out of a heart of gratitude in a generous way. He says this He says, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man came to see. And save the lost. Zacchaeus was not buying or trying to earn Jesus' favor. He had experienced Jesus' favor already and was responding out of a heart of gratitude, saying, God, the grace you've given to me, God, like I want that. Um I want my gratitude for that to pour out to the people around me. And he didn't just say, I'm gonna go and repay what the people that I cheated. He's gonna re says, I'm gonna repay them four times, fourfold. And then the up to half of what I own, I'm gonna give to the poor. The joy, the love, and the gratitude he felt for God's grace in his life led to the generosity that he ultimately showed to those around him. I invite you all to turn to uh 2 Corinthians chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Paul is here talking about um what cheerful giving looks like. And I think there's something really key here for us to understand if we want to actually live out this practice of generosity and gratitude. In verse 6, he says the the point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. And verse seven, again, think of how how Israel uh uh gave uh out of willing hearts. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. Jump down to verse eleven. He says, You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, through which through us will pr produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. And then he closes this this uh this uh instruction with almost like a little doxology in verse 15. He says, Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. Paul here is linking uh God's inexpressible gift back to the reasons why we should give. What is this? What is he talking about here? And I I believe it is uh the ultimate gift of of Jesus on the cross, the ultimate gift of Jesus on the cross. God's gift to us was his his only son that gave his life for us, that uh that bled and died on the cross for our sins. And when we experience that grace that God showed us, that gift that we we uh that he gave us of his only son, when you encounter God's love and grace, it will compel you uh out of a heart of gratitude to give uh uh in response to that, to give back to God and to give to those around you. When you experience the freedom and the forgiveness that comes from knowing the grace of Jesus, it will compel you to give out of a heart of gratitude. John Newton, uh the hymn writer, was born in 1725 in London to a Christian mother. Um when he was a uh a young man, his his mom passed away and he ran away from his the faith of his mom. Uh he ran away, he eventually became a uh wicked, cruel um uh ship captain, and would uh captain a ship that would transport slaves across the Atlantic. One night his ship was caught up in this this violent storm off the coast of Ireland, and in desperation, he knew he was gonna die, he knew he was gonna drown. He cried out to God and said, Lord, save me. Uh asked God for his mercy and his his grace and his life was spared. He went on to give his life to God and to leave the slave trade and become a pastor. And years later, as he was preparing for a sermon on New Year's Eve, uh he he was reflecting on that story of deliverance, and he wrote the words, Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. His experience with God's grace uh filled him with a gratitude that would go on to uh pour out into gener acts of generosity. He spent uh his later years mentoring young pastors. He worked actively to uh to reverse the uh the slave trade. He mentored William Wilberforce and uh gave the rest of his life to counteracting the slave trade. His his gratitude led to generosity. I think of the the verse in uh the the song When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, I think it's the third verse that says, Were the whole realm of nature mine, that would be a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. It's a heart of gratitude, looking for ways to express um a desire to give back to God. So what what's at stake if we don't learn to live this out, if we don't learn to to uh to actually practice this um this uh principle. Why does this matter? Again, we're uh one of the most uh wealthy generations that has ever existed, and yet we're more um unsatisfied, frustrated, and angry than than ever before. And we're entering a season where no matter where you go, wherever you l whenever you leave your home, you'll be bombarded with with with advertisements that say that promise satisfaction and fulfillment if you will only purchase this, if you'll only buy this thing for this special deal. Um and even if you don't leave your home, as you just pull out your phone, uh pull out Instagram or or Facebook or whatever app that you use, you'll be bombarded with with ads that promise satisfaction, fulfillment, and happiness if you only have more. And the world around us is falling for that lie. There's a website called Black Friday DeathCount.com. And it rec has recorded deaths that have happened on Black Friday from 20 or from 2006 to 2021. It actually I just looked at it last night. The website is uh is no longer functioning. It was last year. Uh there's there was between 2006 and 2021, there were 17 deaths, 125 injuries, and then it records headlines from the different different accounts. One of them uh was Black Friday altercation in Kmart leaves man with a shattered hip. Shirtless man uses a belt as a whip outside Van Vancouver Black Friday sale. It's like I'm not gonna lie and pretend that I've never been tempted to act in that that type of behavior. This is the the picture of a world that is in bondage to Satan's lies. And we are not immune to those lies. We are not immune to those lies. James says, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Yeah, is it not from your your desire to have more? You you desire to have more and yet you don't have you can't because you ask for the wrong reasons. Jesus says, freely you have received, freely give. Freely you have received, freely give. And as a church, as followers of Jesus, you and I get to to live out that counter-cultural message that stands in contrast to the lies of Satan. We don't need more possessions to be more happy, to be more fulfilled. And we don't just stop there. We actually uh go on offense. We don't just say no to put more possessions, we say we go on offense and we say, we're actually going to give away what we already have because we have so much, we're so blessed, we're so we have such an overabundance, we get to give. So we're almost like like we're we're we're pushing against the lies of the enemy. And the world around us can see that. Um, we get to to be a countercultural force. Generous gratitude leads to generosity. So just some some application. How do we actually uh live this out? I think number one is is experience experience God's grace. Experience God's grace. Most of you here have experienced God's grace and are following Jesus and have dedicated your lives to his service and to love for him. But if you're not here this morning, if you're here this morning, you haven't given your heart, your life to God, it has to start here. You have to experience the gift that Jesus has freely you have received. If you have not experienced that, if you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, uh, it has to start there. Because that's going to be the motivation for gratitude and for generosity. Number two, uh cultivate gratitude. Cultivate gratitude. I think some uh some really practical ways to do this are by actually naming what you're thankful for on a regular basis, on a daily basis. You know, some of you keep gratitude journals where you you write down a certain amount of things every day that that I feel grateful for. And sometimes it can be be big things like this that you know, maybe a big promotion you received or a gift that a neighbor gave you. But sometimes it can be just something simple like I'm I'm glad that I have I have my health. I'm glad that that my children are well. I'm I'm thankful for the sunshine today. Simple things that cultivate a heart of gratitude. And hopefully that that that heart of gratitude will spill over then into generosity. So uh application point number three is practice generosity. This is something that is like a muscle that you have you you have to practice. Um and it's honestly something I really struggle with. I I am somebody who tends to look at the life with a glass as a glass half half full. And I tend to be somebody who who sees what others have and what I lack. And it's something that I have to actively uh practice to push against. Practice generosity. And there's three ways that we can practice that. And I'm gonna take it from the example of of the the Israelites in this in the story that we looked at in Exodus. Re- three ways to be gener to practice generosity. Number one is by giving away our resources. Give away our resources. And this one is is the one that we think of most often money and possessions. Um I just got a text from from from Sean, I think it was last night, about an opportunity that uh from our in our within our own local community to give uh towards uh the disaster relief in Jamaica. I think Sam Yoder at uh out of Gospel Haven is is uh is getting together a shipment of eight eight or twelve skids of uh I'm not even sure, supplies, I guess, to go down to help out with the Jamaica relief um efforts. Things like that. People that are moved to give to a cause like that, why why do you give? I imagine it has something to do with your your outlook of gratitude for what God has given you, for what you already have, for what God has done for you. So way number one to practice generosity is is by giving resources. Uh way number two is by giving time. We saw the amount of time dedicated by um by the women in in this story who who uh prepared the ram skins, the the the yarn, the linen, and all of this was it took extensive amounts of time. How can you and I give the gift of time? I think of hospitality. I think of uh attention. Um people today are are starving for for somebody just to slow down enough to to hear them or to pay attention to them. Um maybe it's a a neighbor that that comes over to talk um at the most inconvenient times, and you you you just don't feel like dealing with it at the moment. But one way to practice generosity is by slowing down and saying, No, God, I'm you've given me your attention. You've poured you've gave me freedom from sin and life in Christ. I'm going to stop for 10 minutes and just listen to my neighbor. Um maybe it's a customer uh that you don't enjoy interacting with because they're always demanding something or they're they're just they just take up too much of your time. Um just slow down and pay attention and give them the gift of your time. The third way that you can practice generosity is by giving of your skills. This one isn't maybe not as obvious. Paul says in Colossians, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. God creates extraordinary results with your ordinary skills. And this goes for all of you, whether you're a mother at home, um cooking for your family, feeding and clothing your children, or maybe you're a uh a teacher at school that's using the the gift of education to educate the next generation. Maybe you're on a carpentry crew or concrete crew, and you're waking up at, you know, before any of us are, going out there, uh sweating away, uh or freezing right now, and and doing something that to the average person might might not seem that significant. But but know that that is a can be a significant gift back to God. Do if you're pouring concrete, pour it out of a heart of gratitude for what God has done for you, and do it as unto God. If you're a farmer working with the land or with animals, you're not just just raising uh uh beef and um uh growing corn. You are doing, you're using your skills to give back to God. I think of of uh some examples I can think of in my my own community where I experience a business that is clearly living this out. I think of of this is not a promotion for Elite Tire, but if you're in Dover or even not in Dover, go, you need work done on your tires. Elite Tire is a group of, it's a it's a set of brothers, grew up uh Swartz and True Brahmish in Barnesville, Ohio, uh, grew up in a pretty horrific uh or a fairly dark and secluded community, and and now they've experienced the the grace of Christ in their life, and they are the most joy-filled uh people, and it's a it's a pleasure to go in there and have them work on my vehicles because they are working, you just know they're working as unto the Lord, and they're using their skills to give back to God by serving the people around them. Martin Luther says this he says, If you ask an insignificant maidservant why she scours a dish or milks a cow, she can say, I know that the thing I do pleases God, for I have God's word and commandment. God does not look at the insignificance of the axe, but at the heart that serves him in such little things. Maybe a closing challenge that would tie these two things together, gratitude and generosity. This is maybe like a homework assignment. We're going into Black Friday, uh on the holiday shopping deals, all of that. The next time you you encounter an impulse to buy something uh out of a heart of maybe discontentment or covetousness, just stop what you're gonna do before you buy it and bow your head and thank God for what you what he has already given you. Thank him for what you already have, and then instead of making the purchase, take the value of what you were gonna give them, the money that you were gonna give towards that purchase, and ask him, Who can I give this money to today? Who can I give this this resource to today instead of spending it on my own on my own desires? When we understand what we've been given, we will have gratitude that will lead to generosity. In closing, I'd like to uh to look actually I'd like to sing it if we can. Um Franklin, could we sing song number, I think it's 517, Take My Life and Let It Be. Um I think it's that. I love the words of this song because it captures so well this attitude of this heart of generosity. It's like God everything that I have is yours, God. Take it, use it for your own your own will. And let's maybe sc uh just do verse one four and five. All right, and then I'll turn the time over to Sean. God bless you all.