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Because our God is an Encouraging God I'm Encouraging I will encourage others daily I will encourage others spiritually I will encourage myself I Am Generous God Invented Giving When God gave life to the universe, He spared nothing. Think of all the incredible gifts: beautiful sunsets, mountain peaks, and deep blue oceans. Think of the way plants give oxygen, and water gives life to every living thing. In fact, every living thing is—in some way—a giving thing. Why? Because the breath that spoke it into life is laced with generosity. Our God invented giving. When through sin, we brought on physical and spiritual death, God once again found a creative way to give life. This time, He gave His only Son’s innocent life in place of our deserved death—the most generous gift of all. Then, before Jesus ascended, He promised the coming of an encourager called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brought with Him powerful gifts for followers of Christ to build the Church and make the story of Jesus known. Giving is in God’s history, of His heart, by His hand, to build His household. When we give, we act like Him, and we lend to His work. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Luke 11:11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Proverbs 19:17 If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD— and he will repay you! I’m generous with others because it shows faith in God. My temptation is to believe that what I have is what I live off of and its limited… Proverbs says the Lord will repay. My God gives great gifts. Its all his already. So, how can we respond to God’s extravagant generosity? We can start by taking care of His gift. What? How can we take care of Jesus? In Matthew 25:31-46 NIV, Jesus tells a story about sheep and goats. The sheep get into heaven and the goats don’t. How did the sheep manage? Jesus explains, For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in … Then, someone asked, when did we do this for you Jesus? He answered, … whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. Consider: Who is “the least” in your life? How can you generously give to them? I’m generous with the least because they are Jesus brothers and sisters. I’m generous with the least because its giving to Jesus. 1 John 4:7-9Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. We all want to be generous but there is one issue we must deal with. Who oversees my resources? Choose Your Master We get nothing done without giving. We give time and effort to our employers. We give words and affection to our relationships. We even give food to our pets and money to things we believe in. Giving is always a choice. If we chose not to give in the situations above, each situation would cease to exist to us. Every day we wake up is a day we get to choose what we’ll give to. The collection of these daily choices makes up our lives. When we gave our lives to serve Christ, we gave our choices to serve Him. Jesus explained this when He told us we can’t serve two masters. You can probably imagine having two direct supervisors at work. Just as bosses determine what we do at work, choices determine what we give our life to. Jesus was telling us it’s miserable when our choices try to serve two bosses. Two-master living leaves us split-minded in a battle against ourselves. Then, just in case we didn’t make the connection, Jesus told us straight up we can’t serve both God and money. Jesus isn’t saying we can’t have money. He’s saying our choices cannot serve both money and God. Does that mean our money can’t serve God? No. When we give our choices to God, He always puts our money to work for Him, too. In 2 Corinthians 9:6-12, the Apostle Paul urges the Church of Corinth to give cheerfully and generously because God is looking to bless them abundantly to meet both their needs and the needs of others. We can’t serve God and money, but we can choose to serve God with our money! Try this: Examine where your money is serving God and where you’re serving money. I’m generous because my $ is serving God. Let’s Say these positive statements together. I’m generous with others because it shows faith in God. I’m generous with the least because its giving to Jesus who gave me the most. I’m generous because my $ is serving God. Who’s the least or who’s in need? We want to help you be generous. So here’s the Missions team who is giving us an opportunity to help. Maybe you need to keep it. We have all been the least before. Keep it. But you may know right now who needs this more. Pray: God, thank You for giving me life, not once, but twice. First at Birth and then Eternal life with you. Will You now give me the courage to spend my life giving back to You? Please help me to grow a heart of generosity towards the least, my enemy, my neighbor, my church, my family, and ultimately, You. Lord we pray that this gift would be a blessing and would let them know that Jesus loves them. AMEN!