Generosity

"I'm grateful you're here to worship with us this morning," Pastor Brad began. "What would you like to be known for as a community? One of the things I'd like to be known for is generosity. When our name comes up -- New Life Covenant Church -- what is it that you would like people to say about us? Generosity is important not only because God was generous, but it says something about who we are as a people."

Announcements
1. First CHIC fundraiser will be the "Stockholders Dinner" November 2. Buy tickets in  the back of the church after the service.
2. Darlene is putting together a church choir. Practice will begin first week of November.
3. Work day yesterday was outstanding. The next two weeks are critical because there's a lot of labor needed to hang walls, etc. Wednesday and Thursday we'll need help, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. plus next Saturday. Thank you to all who have given time to help.
4. Next Sunday will be one of our semi-annual meetings after church.

Darlene's intro featured "As the Deer" and "Holy, Holy, Holy" in a medley of worshipful ascension, a nice entry into our corporate worship time.

There were some painful prayer needs lifted up, and some wonderful expressions of thanks given.

Generosity

Brad began by commenting on the show Storage Wars. People have storage lockers because they can't fit all their "stuff" in their houses. We accumulate stuff, but then have to maintain it, store it, figure out what to do with it.

We always say our material goods aren't important to us, yet there is an incredible pull to accumulate things.

Jesus said, "Beware, a person's life does not consist of how much stuff he has."

The parable is told about the man who had accumulated so much wealth he decided to build even bigger silos.... and God says, "You fool. Tonight your life will be taken from you."

He then read Acts 4:32-35.

Brad brought up a principle about how certain things that are good lead to other spin-ffs that are also good. Eating meals as a family together has other good consequences. Exercise also.

Generosity is this kind of activity. It leads us into other positive by-products. Relationship-building. Awareness of needs besides our own. And other good that comes of it.

The generosity of the early church was an entirely new thing. And it caught peoples' attention. The result was that they enjoyed the good favor of the people.

Jesus actually talked a lot about money. Of 30 parables that Jesus told, 19 were about money. Money tends to enslave us. It also skews the way we view others. We often measure people by how much money they have.

Do you think today we're more or less inclined toward materialism and consumerism than 2000 years ago? It's more. Based on the world we live in, money is a trap.

Generosity is the core of who we are. Life is not about our stuff. Yet our desires lean in that direction.

In the early church, the attitude was that "All I have is God's." It's not mine. The result is that when you do not "own" your things, you find what you really put your trust in.

The thing about generosity is that it strikes at the heart of our core sin. Adam and Eve's sin was a desire to own, to have, something that didn't belong to them.

The idea of owning more and more, and never being satisfied with what you have, is contagious.

Brad ended with this: "God so loved the world that He gave..." From beginning to end we see that our God is a generous, giving God.

SCENES FROM ACROSS THE STREET