I'm excited to speak to you guys this morning. It is a joy as we kind of wrap up these two chapters in Second Corinthians, man, it has just been. I don't know about you, but it has just hit me between the eyes in so many different ways. And if we've not met, my name's Garrett. I get to serve as one of the elders here. And then you're probably more familiar with seeing me lead worship, and I will not be singing my message this morning. So I've been married for 16 years to my beautiful, wonderful wife, Carly, and the Lord has blessed us with 12. Did I get a. Did Carly get a woo. I'll make sure. And the Lord has blessed us with 12 incredible children. Carly and I have been at Veritas since the beginning, so when we were down in Iowa City and spent time down there for a couple of years before we started in Cedar Rapids. And I can say I had a front row seat at the incredible joy of God's great provision for our church, the incredible overflow of his grace and his mercy on us, the new life and the growth that he's given to so many people sitting in this room today wept and cried and sat knee to knee in silence with many of you, grieved with you. And while it has not always been easy, it has been an incredible joy. And I can truly say that serving at Veritas, serving alongside of you, with you and for you, has been an incredible joy and one of the most sanctifying things that the Lord has used in my life. God's faithfulness and power are evident in how he has chosen to show his grace and his mercy on us here. And as an elder who really deeply loves our church, who loves you, who loves the bride of Christ and desires for us, as Paul says in chapter eight, to excel in this act of grace, I want to help us not forget a few things. So we're going to talk about just like two kind of main. I've got two main points, and then at the end, I just want to speak to some different groups in our congregation, so stay with me. And I think as we consider them, my hope would be that we would heed James 1, and I think it's up on the screen. But be doers of the Word and not hearers, only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away at once. And forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perceives being no hearer, who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. Now, this is a really important promise that we're going to have to cling to if we want to make drastic changes in the way that we handle our finances, the way that we consider our generosity. James says if we walk in obedience to what the Lord has asked of us, that we will be blessed. Some of the things that we've been challenged with, really difficult and really seemingly almost impossible in some cases. But the promise is that God of the universe, who holds all things in his hands, who owns all things in this world, has promised life and life abundant, and that God says he will bless you. Whoa. I think we need to lean in. I think we need to listen. So, Number one. Godly generosity begins with giving yourself first to the Lord. Godly generosity begins first giving yourself first to the Lord. 2nd Corinthians 8, 3:5 says this. 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. The Macedonians gave beyond expectation, beyond even what was being asked of them, because they had given themselves first to the Lord. And this overflowed into a wealth of generosity. This was full surrender of all things unto the Lord. Nothing withheld, no holds, barred from the will of God. And they did it with what? Abundant joy? Abundant joy? How? How could they have possibly done that? How did this persecuted, maligned, and severely afflicted people show such great generosity? Because of the generosity of God. Let's look at verse nine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich man. The more I sit with this passage, the more I am blown away by it. God himself. Hear that? God himself condescended, came down, emptied himself, left the glories of heaven in the presence of the Father, humbled himself to come to us poor, destitute, wicked, dead, impoverished people, and died to give us righteousness and glory and life everlasting, to make us rich in righteousness and abundant joy. What generosity is that? What incredible generosity is that? And who is more deserving of our devotion? Who is more deserving of our surrender? Our first fruits or what else could I possibly give myself first to if I truly understood the beauty of the Gospel? Nothing, nothing and no one. Give yourself first to God and find abundant joy. Give yourself first to God, be filled with righteousness. Give yourself first to God and abound in thanksgiving with overflow to love for others and reap an abounding eternal harvest. I wish we could spend more time on that section. But go back last week. Jake talked about just that sowing and reaping principle and just the importance of it for this passage. And I wish we could spend more time on it. But it's throughout that entire passage, if you look at it. Give yourself first to the Lord and reap an abounding eternal harvest. It starts with surrender to Christ and Christ alone. Because in Christ the rich became poor, the giver of life took on death, and the righteous one was cursed. But because of Christ, the poor have become rich, the dead have been given life, and the cursed have become righteous. What an incredible truth that is. The gospel is our motivation, and we are nothing apart from the mercy of God. We have to start there. Now it would be easy for us to say amen. Amen to that, right? Yeah. Praise be to God. But do our lives reflect the proper response to such great news? Does what we confess with our mouth show up in our obedience church? We are prone to wander and believe the lie of prosperity. We are. We easily believe that what it promises that it will satisfy and that what it promises it will actually end up giving us. We we may see the generosity of God, but we still want to avoid discomfort. We still want to control our lives. We use our resources in our lives to create an image, uphold a curated aesthetic, a polished online reputation. We fill our schedules. We spend exorbitant amounts of time and money on health and longevity. We set up our lives so that we're as comfortable as possible. Our homes oftentimes are built to impress, not to serve, and to prove our wealth to the outside world. We use money to fulfill every longing of our heart and feed the God of comfort that we have put on the throne of our heart. Now, don't hear me say that making your home beautiful and welcoming or taking care of yourself and caring for your health are bad things. They are, as Paul says, of some value, right, of some value. But they cannot be the greatest value and they cannot be the value that every other value bows down to. Right? I'm simply saying that even in the church, we proclaim our dependence on God, but often our lives communicate something altogether different, that we really look like the world. We consume the same entertainment, we participate in the same activities, we schedule our lives in the same way, we spend our money in the same way, we dream the same dreams. We have a view of the good life that looks eerily similar to our next door neighbors who don't believe in Jesus. And by and large, our lives are indistinguishable from the world. So are we really giving ourselves first to the Lord, or are we giving ourselves first to the world? Are we giving ourselves first to the Lord or our own desire to fit in? So what does that look like, giving ourselves first to the Lord? I think in giving ourselves first, we must orient our lives around what God has called us to. And there's some things in His Word that are pretty plain, right? He doesn't really mince words, right? They're very plain. And yet we find a way to get around obedience. We find a way to justify ourselves. We must take the Lord at His Word. And what His Word calls us to is clear and straightforward. Yet we quickly make excuses which should reveal something about our hearts, something about us. I just want us to read through a couple passages together that we really need to take to heart. We need to ask ourselves, do I believe what God says about money? Like I, I, I say I love God's word. I want to do what God's word says. But like, when it actually confronts me, am I willing to go in obedience? Or even as Paul says in the chapter, he says, hey, like I know that you desire to do this. Complete the desire, right? Keep going in obedience. Or do we just give platitudes and say the right things when it's convenient for us? Our first passage is Ecclesiastes 5. It says this. He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them. I know that with 12 kids. And what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? So you see, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money, you will not be satisfied with wealth. Like we know that, right? We know that. But what do our actions say? And what's the contrast to that? So if we know that he who loves money will not be satisfied with money. But what do we know? He who is satisfied, who loves God is satisfied in God, right? He who loves God is satisfied in God. You get a similar sentiment in Proverbs 23. It says, do not toil to acquire wealth. Be discerning enough to desist when your Eyes light on it, it's gone. For suddenly it sprouts wings flying like an eagle towards heaven. Salman is saying, like, it's not just unwise to spend your life trying to acquire wealth. It's stupid, right? It's stupid. The moment that you look at it, it flies away. As soon as it arrives, it's gone. Wisdom, Solomon says, is being discerning enough to have self control and to abstain, to abstain from seeking wealth as your greatest treasure. Psalm 49 says this. Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies, he will carry nothing away. His glory will not go down after him. For though while he lives, he counts himself blessed, and though you get praise when you do well for yourself, his soul will go to the generation of his fathers who will never again see light. The psalmist here is speaking about the fear of powerful people and what they could do, right? But I think it also colors in James 2 for us a little bit where he's talking about partiality to the rich and he's saying, are these not the same people that drag you to court? Are these not the same people that enslave you? Are these not the same people that cheat you? And yet you want to give them the best spot in the synagogue? You want to give them the best spot? Something's not jiving here. And I think that for us, there's an important principle that we need to understand for our generation. Says think about social media and YouTube and TikTok and Instagram influencers and the. And the life that they have and the life that they sell us has captured our hearts. The rich, the wealthy, the beautiful has captured our hearts. Our lives show it. Our conversations show it. Our vacations show it. What we think is important shows it church. Who's influencing you? Who's influencing your children? Are you fighting a seemingly losing fight with the world undermined by wealthy and young beautiful influencers of our time? Who are you truly being discipled by? Who is the next generation of our church being discipled by? And what is the impact that that's going to have on your family? And our family, we need to take account of the people that we follow, the people that we listen to, the people that we read. Where is our heart being pointed? Where are you being told that abundant life is found in a dream home, in an important job, in an ever expanding nest egg, the latest fashion or trend, toys, popularity, experiences. What is shaping us as a people? I think we need to look at a warning from Jesus in Matthew 16, it says, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Jesus uses money language here. Uses money language. He says, what's the return on investment? What's the end game? What's the benefit of gaining the whole world? This world and its glory is temporary, but the soul is eternal, right? We're meant in that we're meant to be left feeling foolish. We're meant to be left feeling foolish for running after earthly things and not considering the cost, the cost that it has to our soul. In contrast, Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 6, I believe I have. Hey, there we go. It's like Family Feud. You just say it and then it's like, boom, right there. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing everything. Paul's trying to get his audience to look past earthly possessions and worldly riches to something greater, something better, eternal better riches, weighing everything against a greater reality. He's saying, here's what the world has for me, here's what Christ has for me, and it's better to an eternal degree. We see that same sentiment in Philippians 3 as well. It says, indeed, I count everything as loss because because of the surpassing, what worth. Worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Paul's helping us with a very important contrast here. He's saying, because I know how much knowing Christ is worth. There can be no comparison to anything this world has to offer me. There's nothing that. That I may be able to do or may be able to have compared to the glory of knowing the King of the Universe and being called his child. I count everything else as worthless. Compared to God's glory, everything else is worthless. It can feel like Paul and Jesus are asking, asking a lot of us. We convince ourselves that he doesn't understand our situation, the pressures that we feel, the debt we've incurred, or how hard it would be to. How hard it would be to change our lifestyle. He doesn't know the cost of eggs, the rising property taxes you have to deal with, and on and on and on and on. But they don't give us an out here. Instead, Paul points us to the sufficiency and power of God. Look at 2 Corinthians 9, 8. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, I'M pretty sure that's everything. You may abound in every good work. As it is written, he has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Paul's argument for why you should feel the freedom to give generously is because God is able to make grace abound to you. Because he is sufficient in all things at all times forever. He points them to the sovereignty and supremacy and generosity of God. Philippians 4 says this. I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gift you sent. A fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus to our God and Father may be glory forever and ever. Amen. How will God supply your needs? Because he owns everything. It's all His. His riches and glory never end. Guys, our confidence, our to embrace sacrificial generosity doesn't come from our circumstances or the size of our bank account, but the size of our God. Our confidence and boldness and generosity must be in the power and supremacy of an all sufficient God who endures forever in his ability to provide for you and to multiply your gift for his glory. He's able to provide, he's able to sustain. His grace is sufficient for you. So step out in obedience, in generosity, and see God's faithfulness towards you. Seek him first. Give yourself first to the Lord, because He is worth far more than anything this world could offer us. The second Godly generosity sets a trajectory for your heart. Many of the guys that preached over the last five weeks, they alluded to Matthew 6 and I think it's a really important touch point for us. And in Randy Alcorn's book Money, Possessions and Eternity, he talks about this passage as just a really key passage for us to look at our hearts. Matthew 6:19 says this. Do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and kids and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And then 24 says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You, you cannot serve God and money. The difference here is the tense he's saying, where your treasure is, there your heart will be. There's an implication here of both present and future Jesus is saying that our heart will follow our treasure. Where I invest now. Such a trajectory has a hard word to say. Trajectory for where our heart will be, the decisions we make now and how we steward what God has given us has future, even eternal ramifications. Seemingly small decisions now will set the course for our heart. That's a humbling thing. That's a humbling thought, a warning and an encouragement to us saying set your treasure on things of this world world. You will reap things of this world and you will fall more and more in love with this world. But set your treasure on earthly kingdom focused God honoring purposes and reap blessings from the Lord in a heart that will grow more and more fond of your God as you trust and rely on Him. Show yourself. Show someone your spending habits, your credit card bills, your subscriptions and your debts and they will walk away with a pretty good understanding of what you value. Much like a compass always points north where our wealth points, there goes our heart. So what do we do? What do we do with that? How do we move forward? We engage both our minds and our hearts. We have to engage both our minds and our hearts. We need to slow down. We need to slow down and consider the spiritual implications of the financial decisions we make. It is so easy. It's so easy church to live in. Just a constant reaction to the happenings immediately in front of us with little self control or foresight. We are distracted and preoccupied people and we get caught up in the craziness that surrounds us and the impulses of our own desires and we simply don't stop long enough to think about much of anything. We are worn down and exhausted by busyness and doom scrolling in activity and then the little free time we do have. We feast on entertainment, yet we are surprised that our hearts are fattened, our hearts are numb, and our hearts are often unresponsive to the Lord's leading. In our pride we believe that we can serve both God and money. We've got it figured out. We've got a plan. But Jesus doesn't give us a middle ground to stand on. He doesn't say you shouldn't serve both God and money, but he says you cannot serve both God and money. You can only have one master, one object of worship. Stop and consider. Actually look at your life and your finances and ask yourself the hard questions. And I hope you guys talk through some of these in connection group this week and just a few questions to like hey, where's my heart at? How do I assess my heart in this area, what does my giving communicate about my devotion and submission to God? And is it consistent with my confession that Jesus is my greatest treasure? What motivates my giving and my generosity? Or on the flip side, what motivates my lack of giving or my lack of generosity? What does radical obedience in the area of money look like for me? And does my life look objectively different than my non Christian neighbors and friends? And why? This is something we need to really take to heart church as we assess ourselves. Something to consider for us as a church body. Like, so we have. Obviously our church body is made up of individuals, but we are a body unified under Christ. So we should care about like our generosity as a, as a collective group, as the body of Christ. This year, the national average for church giving per person. So this is basically you take the church like actual church giving and then you just divide it by the number of people in the church. Okay. So it's more of a helpful metric to be able to say, hey, like that's a cleaner metric to be able to speak with other churches and just kind of see, hey, like where are we at in general? This year the national average for church giving per person was $2,300 for churches in the salt network in Iowa. So these are our people, right? They live in the same state. We're not talking California, we're not talking New York or like, you know, or anything. We're talking about people who like, they've got families like us, live in similar places to us. Iowa Salt Church's is almost $2,700 per person giving Veritas Cedar Rapids is approximately 1,700. It's kind of a tough pill for us to swallow. A little bit like 40% more than churches that are very similar to us in our area. And I had asked Austin for just some like, some data on like just giving in our church for like actual households. So like whether you're a married couple or a single person, like, hey, like that's a one giving unit. And we kind of worked it out. And based off of a average home income of $85,000 in the Cedar Rapids area, which is off the government website, we give on average a little bit less than 4% of our income as a church. I think that says something for us. I think that's something as I think we have some very generous people in our church. But I think as overall, I think this is an area that we need to grow. We need to grow. The Lord wants our hearts holy and devoted to him. You will Invest in what you love. You will invest in what you love. You will compare their worth, and then you will run towards the thing that you view as the more precious treasure. Or when we see Christ as the treasure, sacrificing all things, surrendering all things to him. His kingdom is the pearl of great price. And would it show up? And how we allocate the wealth that God has bestowed on us and has entrusted us with. Would we treasure Christ as the ultimate and only worthwhile prize? And would that set our hearts on a trajectory of worship, gratitude, godly generosity, and abundant joy? Abundant joy. There is joy in obedience and following God and his will. It would be easy for each of us, I think, to look at the circumstances of our lives and believe that our circumstances are somehow unique, somehow. That the call to generosity only applies to us when we have extra funds or that we hear a difficult message on giving. But when I consider our church and each different stage of life, there's common difficulties, there's common temptations among, like, different groups of people in our church. And I just want to kind of address each different. Each different group. And obviously it's not going to be all encompassing, but I think a few different groups I think are helpful and everyone else listen in, right? It's not like, oh, that doesn't apply to me because Garrett's talking to the kids, right? But it is, I think it's good for us to consider. So, kids, it is not too early, and it's never too early to begin giving. Even your birthday money, your Christmas money, your allowance is a grace from God. And many of the adults in this room regret that they did not establish a rhythm of generosity and giving at an earlier age. As you walk through life, it only becomes harder, it only becomes more easy for money to grab a hold of your heart. You have no bills now. I wish I knew what that was like. And beginning the devotional habit of generosity now sets you up for a lifetime of joy in the Lord. It may seem a long way now, it may seem a long way now, but you will stand before the Lord. And how amazing would it be to have begun in obedience, in storing up treasures in heaven from a young age. And you get to stand before the king of the world, and he says, faithful servant, man. Praise God for that. That would be an incredible thing. College students. Hey, guys. Those who are still here from, like, spring break. This is great. It is so easy right now to make excuses. My parents never taught me how. I don't have a steady income. I don't know how long I'll be here? I have student loan debt that needs to be paid. I want to feel like it's authentic and I won't do it until like I feel like it's authentic guys. Your generosity now fuels your generosity later. Your generosity when you have little shows your devotion to the Lord and gives you a front row seat at the faithfulness of God. So that when you have money, you'll remember what the Lord has brought you through. And that giving in generosity will be a non negotiable act of devotion as the decisions that you make in the next five years, in the next five years truly will set a trajectory for the rest of your life. Seek out wise godly people to be accountable to as you make financial decisions and don't let what is supposed to be the first fruits of your labor become the scraps parents. Man, we are in the throes of it, aren't we? The burden to provide for the needs of our children is incredibly heavy and we can be so prone to be anxious about finances and the temptation is to cut giving first. What we've got to remember is that the Lord promised to provide for our needs. He didn't promise to provide for our lifestyle. And just as Jesus says in Luke 12, life is not found in the abundance of possessions. It could also be said that a good childhood does not consist in the abundance of possessions or experiences. Your child does not need the latest tech. They don't need to be in 10 activities. They don't need the newest Jordans, the trendiest water bottle. Your goal as a parent is not to help your child fit in with the world, but to help them be comfortable with the fact that their home is not here. You are in control of your family's finances. Do not let your children rule your home in such a way that you're unable to fulfill what God has asked of you first. Your children may be your primary mission field, but they are not your God. Give yourself first to the Lord. The values of your heart are being written on the hearts and minds of your children. Whether godly or worldly. Give yourself first to the Lord and teach your children generosity, the value of Christ and true dependence on God with your wallet and your life. All the while, pray. Pray for endurance to rely on the Lord. His promises are true and they never fail you. 30 through 50 crowd find myself smack in the middle of that group right now. We are fed the lie that your greatest earning years are for career advancement, lifestyle increase and upgrades. Gotta upgrade my house, gotta upgrade my car, gotta Upgrade my appliances. I gotta upgrade my hobby gear. Yes, golfers and hunters. I'm speaking to you gun owners, right? Like there's we find every we find this is like this is the time to do it, right? Like you're in your earning years of your life. You have financial planning and security experience seeking and getting the most out of your life. What if when you got your raise, you didn't immediately have a spot for it with something new? What if when you got your raise, you didn't take the first opportunity to get a new house or a new car or to renovate? What if your lifestyle didn't change but your giving did? What if we thought as hard about how we could honor the Lord and serve others with our money as we did about the next purchase that we intend to purchase or buy? We are the most marketed to group and the most prone to embrace and materialistic lives of the generation. Jesus warning in Luke 12 is especially poignant for us. And I think it's up there. Maybe not. All right, it is. And he said to them, take care. Be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. The good life is found in abiding in Christ. The good life is found in obedience and service to him. Not bucket lists, vacations, RVs, boats or memory making experiences. When you get to the end of your life, it will not matter if you got to go on that European vacation or that you got to take your kids to Disney, or even that they got to see the ocean while they were in your home. Elizabeth Elliot once said her dream was to go and see the Alps. She wanted to see the Swiss Alps in all their glory. But she said but if I never get the opportunity to see them, I will be content, she said, because I know that heaven is far better. Amen. I know that heaven is far better. Your best life is not here. Do not be deceived that it can be obtained on this side of heaven. For those close to retiring, be so convinced and captivated by our future glory that Christ that we consider everything in life open handed. That the culmination of all your years of work and the fruits of your labor and our harvest is not a tropical beach house, world travels and golf. You have an opportunity to be a pacesetter for the next generation. Don't take these years off. You may be done with your career, but your greatest and most important work is not yet done. Don't lose heart. Don't grow weary of doing good and pray Pray for the next generation. Pray for the next generation. And with that said, grandparents, you're last. Deuteronomy 4, 8, 10 says this. Maybe. Nope. Okay. Only take care and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen. Unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life, make them known to your children and your children's children. Your work is not done. You got your kids out of the house. Good job. Your work is not done. We need your wisdom. Your grandchildren need your wisdom and your instruction. This is not the time to coast. Finish well and help the next generation see the sufficiency of Christ. And don't fall for the marketing scheme of our day that makes it seem like your new purpose should be simply to rest. For those of us in the trenches of raising children, we need your help. We need you to help us see past the chaos in front of us and remind us of what's truly important. Be bold. Speak truth. Love your grandkids not by spoiling them, but by showing them the beauty of Christ and the joy of your salvation. Teach them about generosity. Instruct them. Pray for them. Show them with your life. Leaving a legacy of faith for your grandchildren is far better than any trust fund or inheritance that you could ever leave for them. Guys, here's my heart for our church that we would excel in generosity with the right heart, that we remember the last verse of these two chapters, 9, 15. It says, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. The one who left the riches of heaven, the one who did not come to be served, but two served. The one who laid down his life for your sake. The one who became sin, yet knew no sin. The righteous Lamb of God who created the world and for whom the world was created. He gives us life and life abundant. And it is not found in the abundance of possessions. It is found in Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life church. True godly generosity begins with a broken and contrite heart and spirit that is humbly surrendered to Christ and lives in awe of the indescribable gift of the atoning blood of Christ. I'll say that again. True godly generosity begins with a broken and contrite spirit that is humbly surrendered to Christ and lives in awe of the indescribable gift of the atoning blood of Christ. So as we take communion together as we're both confronted with the truth of our inability to please a holy God and reminded that the God of the universe, in mercy and kindness and unfathomable generosity came to us, died the death we deserved, shed his blood on our behalf as our eternal home is not here, True lasting wealth is not here, eternal joy not here. It's hidden in Christ. We remember him. And would our souls be nourished by his spirit? As we join together, as we come to the table, let's pray. Lord, you are worthy of all praise and glory. You are worth far more than gold and treasures and reputation and social status and whatever else it is that our hearts run after. Lord, you are worthy and far greater treasure of eternal value. Lord, we remember where we will be for eternity in your glory, in your holiness, whether we don't even need a sun because your glory will shine. This place is temporary. To be with you is eternity. Would we consider our lives and how we walk in obedience in light of that we love.