A NOTE FROM PASTOR MARGE
For the past five weeks, we’ve been in our sermon series titled, “7 Perfect Rules for ’23.” These are seven rules we are committing to live by in the year 2023. We are on Rule #6 this week, which is “Adopt a Generous Spirit.” Generosity is an integral part of our faith journeys as disciples of Jesus Christ. If we are striving to become disciple-making disciples, then we need to realize and understand that generosity is vital in the disciple-making business. Here’s the thing about generosity: generosity is an act of love. And love that is genuine is naturally generous. Just look at Christ. He had all the privileges that were rightly His as King of the entire universe, yet He gave them up to become a Jewish baby bound for the cross. While He had every right to stay comfortably where He was, which was a position of power, His love drove Him to a position of weakness for the sake of eternally saving mankind. Love that is genuine is naturally generous.
As Jesus followers, we too can adopt a spirit of generosity because God did it first. Because our identity is rooted in Christ, naturally what follows next is a generous outpouring of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, peace, wisdom, thankfulness, joy, and genuine love. We lavish these good works on others because of the grace that was first given to us by God Himself. The root of generosity is not in our circumstances, our abilities, our bank accounts, or our religiousness. The root of generosity is in the cross, God’s inexpressible gift to us, where Jesus gave us abundant life. May we be generous in every way so that our generosity would result in thanksgiving to our good and gracious Heavenly Father. May the world look at us and not merely see generous people but see instead disciples of Jesus Christ.
— Pastor Marge
