I am a church member // We give together // II Corinthians 9:6-15 // Pastor Josh Evans

Amen. Can we pray together? Lord, that is the posture of our heart today. God, that's where all of us need to be.

That's where all of us need to live here today before you. God, surrendering everything that we have before you. God, that's where I hope that every person is in here, but God, I know a lot of times we get busy and we have schedules and we have different things and sometimes we forget the importance of laying it all down before you and not just having you as a priority on our list but actually having you as the center of everything on our list. And God, that's what it means to to really just give our life to you in full surrender to you today as we open up your word. God, I pray that we can surrender our life to you. God, it's important not just for the delivery of your word but it's also important to receive that, to have a heart that is open to exactly what you would have for us here today. And I pray, Father, that in the few moments that we have today, God, that you would be glorified and that we would be fully surrendered to everything that you would have for us. We love you for it's in your name we pray and all God's people said amen, amen.

You guys can have a seat here today. Well, it is good to see you here and I want to invite you, if you have your Bible today, to join me in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 9. 2nd Corinthians chapter number 9. And like Bob mentioned earlier, we are concluding a series that we've been in every Sunday so far of 2025. We are concluding a series, I am a church member. Now let me just be honest, I've said this every single week of the series, that if you're not a church member here, I understand you might see a series like this and think like, oh this is not for me, I came on the wrong Sunday, I'm kind of eavesdropping into a family conversation here or something like that. I want you to know this is a great, this isn't just about Union Grove but it is about what it means from Scripture what the local church is designed for and how each one of us can be a part of the local church.

I want to give you a little bit of a recap just before we dive into our final week here today. In week number one we looked at the mission of the local church and the mission is very simple and this is why we exist as a church. We exist to reach as many people as possible with the good news of the gospel and to disciple them into becoming devoted followers of Jesus. That is the scoreboard by which what we do matters, that's how we measure success here in our ministry is through reaching people and discipling people.

And so that's what we want to spend our money on, that's what we want to spend our time on, that's what we want to have events for and different things to accomplish this. And so that's the mission, so how can we be deeply connected to that mission? What does the scripture say about that? And and so we looked at that about what church membership, what does that import, is it important for me to be a member of a church?

What difference does it make? And so we kind of looked at scripture on a few different things about why this is important and the first thing we looked at for church members is we must come together in worship and that's the weekend experience. And we think that's super important and a part of your Christian experience is being able to gather together. And so scripture talks about not forsaking this assembly, this time that we get to be together and I want you to know that when we don't make this a priority you miss out on something that God wants to do in your life while here. We also look in our church that we want to grow together, that's Bible fellowships, that's stepping out of like a row like this and getting deeper into one of our classes, going deeper in your knowledge of Scripture with one another.

We grow better in the context of relationship, iron sharpening iron and things like that. And so it's important for us to do that. We talked about serving together in ministry. We took spiritual assessment tests to find out where we are spiritually gifted so that we can use that in the local church for the edification of the body. We asked this question, who is being built up in our church because of you serving and using your spiritual gift? Then we looked last week at going together on mission and that just means that recognizing that the mission of reaching people and discipling people, you kind of take that upon yourself, you own it and when you leave here you leave here sent by God, sent by Him on mission into the world. So that means in your community where your kids play sports at, at your school, all these different places you are sent on mission by God for His mission. And then today we are gonna look at this idea of not only do we attend together, not only do we grow together, not only do we do we go together and we serve together, but we also give together. We also give together. Now talking about giving in the local church is always a bit uncomfortable, right?

It's always a little bit uncomfortable. We're like here the pastor goes again. Remember my church experience? I've grown up all my life in like a Baptist Church and so very similar to this and so for me I've heard everything like all that pastor wants is my money, right? All he wants is the pocketbook and the wallet and all this.

That's all he ever talks about and things like that. And so what happens is we get nervous or uncomfortable talking about money and giving in a local church type of context. But I believe that more importantly than that, I believe that the reason talking about money and giving is an awkward conversation and why we get defensive about it is because ultimately we really don't like for anybody to tell us what to do with our money, right? We do not like that. And so anytime money comes up we get very defensive, very uncomfortable, very private, very quiet because we don't like anybody telling us what to do with our money.

Well here's what I want you to know before you get uncomfortable about talking about it. The scripture actually talks a lot about giving and a lot about managing your finances and a lot about money and so if Jesus talked about it then we, as a local church, we have to address this thing. We have to talk about giving in a biblical way because I think giving is a direct response to your Christian experience, to your Christian experience.

So it's something we have to we have to look about it. And here I want to read one verse, 2 Corinthians 9 verse 7 and then we'll read some other verses together. But in verse number 7, I want you to see this because here Paul, yeah Paul, he talks about really the motivation or the heart behind our giving. Look at what he says in verse number 7. He says, every man according as he purposeeth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver.

For God loveth a cheerful giver. Now here Paul, he's addressing, now I'll remind you remind you of this, he's talking to the church at Corinth. So Paul is directly talking about money to a church.

So it's very similar to like what we're doing here today. Instead he's writing a letter about the importance of giving and he makes this really crazy statement that that God loveth a cheerful giver. What he's talking about is the heart and the motivation and the attitude behind the way that that we give. Now think about it like if you know I'm sure you guys have sat in different things like maybe you get invited to something like a banquet or some fundraiser or something and you go there and and you kind of you know hear the pressure of giving right you know the pressure of giving or or perhaps you're listening to the radio and it just so happens to be the month where they are trying to get you to give and and you're just kind of like oh my goodness I can't handle more of this or whatever and here's what I'll tell you in those moments sometimes we you know want to you know we turn it off we get very defensive and we don't really want to be told what to do with our money and that's for a lot of different reasons but here's what I'll tell you is that for me sometimes when I sit in those things here's what I'm thinking I could be using that money for something else I could be spending my money doing something else why should I give it here and here's what I want you to know about that if that's you and that might be exactly where your heart is right now why is he talking about money here's what I want you to know is that cheerful giving what Paul's talking about here in verse number seven cheerful giving is not about the amount that you give it is about the heart in which you give let me say that again cheerful giving is not about the amount that we give because some of us think about it the amount right when I sit in those things here's what I always want to know like I don't even know where to begin I would love to know what everybody else is giving to this project and then I can kind of size myself up and and stuff like that and so that's how I think but here's what he's saying cheerful giving it's not about the amount it's about the heart in which we we give and you see this principle mentioned here and so for a few moments I want to talk about this idea of what it looks like and what does Paul mean by being a cheerful giver because he's talking to the church and and this is a part of it so just like we looked at in this series about you know attending together and the importance of that and growing together and serving together and going out on mission together we also there's an element where we worship together as a church body as a family by by giving and that's what Paul is going to talk about here let's look first at the fruit of giving the fruit of of giving look at what he says in verse number six verse number six he says this but this I say he which so it's sparingly shall reap also sparingly and he would soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully now here Paul he gives us what I would call a spiritual law or a spiritual principle about about giving he's trying to get us to understand this this law or this principle when we when we give and so in other words what he's doing is he's using an analogy to prove his point he's using this farming terminology in other words like you will reap what you what you sow when it comes to giving and so he's saying that giving is like a farmer planning planting his seed giving is like a farmer planting his seed so when a farmer you know plants plants their seed and and they plan it one season they have to wait for some time for a for a harvest then just come right away you go out to your garden and you plant some seeds it doesn't just show up right right away now I am NOT a farmer I know for some of you you're like really you kind of had me fooled and so but here's the thing I am NOT a farmer but here's what I'll tell you is that my family all are big into the farming industry and so my dad he wasn't really into farming but he worked at a poultry plant and so he kind of dabbled in it a little bit but my aunt and uncle they are big farmers here in the state of North Carolina at the eastern part of the state and and we don't have a whole lot of cool things happen but in our family but this is my opportunity to talk about farming and so I'll talk about them for just a second so they're like big farmers so like miles and miles of like land and and just crops and and they farm all sorts of different things and so but several years ago they I didn't even know this was a thing but they won farmer of the year in the state of North Carolina which I did not even know that that existed until this moment so they did that well in the same year that they won farmer of the year they they chose them to raise the the turkey that the president would pardon on Thanksgiving Day now this was back when Obama was president and so they raised this turkey and so for an entire year when we would visit them they had you know they have tons of like turkey houses they have like 60,000 turkeys and so it's this massive place and and so but they had this one pin this has nothing to do with this but I just think it's me they have this one pin with this one turkey that they were raising for an entire year and there was all these rules about this one turkey because that turkey is going to be on national television with the president they can't have that turkey lose its mind and so they had to literally every single day they had to go out for an entire year and they had to play with it and pet this turkey so that it would be tame for when the president you know has this turkey on national television pretty crazy they had lunch at the White House it was wild and so I say all that to say farming is a part of part of our family and so growing up my aunt and uncle they would invite me for two weeks to work on their farm they could not handle any more of me other than two weeks and I realized in those two weeks that farming was not my gift all right it was not my gift and so way too hard of work so I became a pastor instead and so but the point was is every day we would be up at like five o'clock in the morning and we'd go out and and they farm things like beans and corn and they had like turkeys and some of that but we had to back and all this kind of stuff and so I would get up early and we go do all this kind of stuff but here's what I'll tell you about farming that I've learned from them over the years is that they have to spend money on seed and all this stuff at the beginning and they have to plant all of this with the hope that it will be invested and that they will reap a harvest down the road and what Paul is saying is that's the same way with giving and so just as if you were to go out to your garden and you take all these seeds that you had you know gotten from wherever and you put those into the ground what he's saying is this is like just like you might think wow I had to spend a little money on this stuff to put into the ground but you're hoping that one day you will reap a harvest from that small investment well what Paul is saying is that's the same way that it goes with with giving with being generous is that when you invest you throw a seed in your tithes and offerings and you you throw another seed into missions or you throw another seed into our forward and faith building campaign that we've been in as a church when you're throwing seeds out at these specific things he's saying yes it looks like now man it's a sacrifice but what he's saying is that there is a harvest that is coming for you now I want to be very clear that harvest we're going to talk about what that looks like because I don't want you to think that it's money I don't think that that's what he's talking about and I'm going to show that you show you that from 2nd Corinthians 9 here in a moment but there is a fruit from your giving and so the problem is that I think for a lot of us is this we all want the harvest only but we're not willing sometimes to do the sewing that leads to the harvest you see that's the big problem with giving is that we all want the harvest but we don't want to take the time and effort it is to to sew which leads to the harvest this is the fruit of giving ultimately here's what Paul's or what Paul's trying to say is stingy giving results in a stingy harvest but bountiful giving results in a bountiful harvest that's the fruit of giving number two I want you to see this the heart of giving the heart of giving look at what he says in verse number seven is this every man according as he purposes in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver so here we not only see the fruit of giving it's like you reap what you sow right that's the principle but now in verse seven he talks about the heart the heart of giving and he doesn't this in a couple of ways number the first thing you see is the command of giving you see the command of giving in other words giving it's not something we have to pray about it's not something now the amounts and stuff like that yes but it's not something like you have to say should I give or should I be generous and stuff no it's it's more of a command in Scripture look at what he says every man according as he purposes in his heart what does it say next so let him give let him give and so it's not a question of should we I mean the scripture I could go on and on about the tithe and giving a tenth of your of your income and and stuff like that to the Lord for his mission to go forward and stuff like that but what I want you to see here is this is that giving is really about your heart it is a heart issue and what you see here is there's a progression there's a progression every man according as he is purposes in his heart so let him let him give the point is is this is that being generous is a result of you experiencing how generous God has been with you in other words when you trust in the gospel and you realize that God loved us right and by the way you weren't deserving of his love the scripture says that we weren't you know deserving of his love but you know what God loved us so much that he what gave what did he give us he gave his very son Jesus Christ to come and live the perfect life something that you could never do the only life worthy of having a relationship with the Father right and then he died a death that every single one of us deserved because of our sin and you know how the scripture describes that that's the gospel in a nutshell the scripture just describes it this way that for that he became poor so that we through his poverty might become rich isn't it understand is it isn't it interesting that that's the way that the gospel would be described that through his poverty God's poverty giving up his only begotten son Jesus leaving a perfect heaven to come to a very undeserving people and to give his life for you right the point is he has been generous to us and when we trust in him here's what I'll tell you when you trust in him what happens to you not just behavior modification what changes is your heart your heart changes that's when we say you change from the inside out and so the point that Paul is trying to make is this is that the heart behind the giving once you've received and once you understand how generous he has been with you the natural response of that is to be a generous person does that make sense so as he changes your heart the natural tendency out of what Christ has done for you is to give once your heart has been changed be generous if you're not generous here's what I'll tell you if you're not generous it probably goes back to to a problem with your heart that's why there's a progression as you purpose in your heart so let him give because here's what I'll tell you somebody who has been changed from the inside because of the gospel you don't have to force them to be generous because they recognize how generous God has already been with them does that make sense and so that's the point that he's trying to trying to make that's the command of giving but but secondly I want you to see the attitudes behind our giving like how are we supposed to give he mentions a couple of specific words here in verse 7 the first one is we are supposed to give not reluctantly that's that word grudgingly right in other words here's what that means don't complain about giving and also don't worry about giving you know I don't know about you but sometimes when we give and and stuff you know you kind of worry it's like man I hope God provides for my needs if I do this I'm hoping that he provides and stuff and now Paul is telling us this hey don't give reluctantly right don't give hesitantly no here's what we are supposed to do we are supposed to be faithful and obedient in our giving and we just sit back and watch God do the work in other words you're not responsible for the harvest all you're responsible for is being obedient to give so we are to give not reluctantly but also give not of necessity not of necessity you say what in the world does does that mean here's what I think Paul's literally meaning when he says not of a necessity I don't think he's I think he's saying not of manipulation and and by the way like here's what I think if he was standing here today here's what he would say it's like we should not need a sermon series on giving we should not need a pick-me-up on giving no he's saying that once your heart has been changed by the power of the gospel then we give as a result of that not of necessity man you don't need to pressure me into giving I'm given because of what God has already given me because God has been generous with me now I'm gonna be generous with others not just because of what a pastor says or or something like that no I'm giving because he has changed my heart don't give out of a necessity but then number three he says here's how you give give cheerfully give cheerfully you know I think this is interesting when you think of the word be a cheerful giver like what is what does that mean and and from time to time Pastor Bailey might say this and I've heard him say it numerous times here he'll say the scripture tells us to be hilarious givers have you ever heard him say that before okay a few of you and he'll say be a hilarious giver and here's what I'll tell you like when I receive that I think of the English word hilarious and so I'm just like am I supposed to be giggling as the offering plates go by you know and so what in the world does that mean is that supposed to be a funny moment in our service and stuff what exactly does that mean the reason why he says that is exactly what Paul saying here in verse number seven when he says the word cheerful here's what that word is actually a Greek word it's a Greek word hilarious and it's actually where we get the word hilarious the word literally means in Greek it means this happy means happy in other words what Paul is trying to tell us is this is that the attitude of giving should not be reluctant it should not be out of necessity it should be out of happiness out of delight we should be eager to give we should be excited and happy about our giving not complaining no need of a sermon for me because he's been generous with me I'm going to be generous with others we should desire it and we should want it and it should bring a smile to our faces we should delight in it it's an act of worship it's a moment just like we sing songs just like we receive the word it's an act of worship for us to give we should desire it and we should want to give that's the attitude behind giving number three is this the provision of giving the provision of giving in verses 8 through 11 now this is where it gets a little a little tricky and I want you to see this is this verse 8 says and God don't miss this and God is able to make all grace abound towards you that ye always having all sufficiency and all things may abound to every good work as it is written he hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the poor his righteousness remaineth forever now he that minister of seed to the sower both minister bread for your food and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness being enriched in everything to all bountifulness which calls us through us thanksgiving to God now I want you to see real quickly here the provision of giving this is where giving gets gets tricky because here's what I'll tell you when you give whether it be to the church whether it be to a nonprofit or or to an individual or you know missions or whatever it's almost like if you're like me sometimes we think that giving is for the recipient of the gift right I mean we're helping somebody out we're helping the church out right we're helping a missionary out or we're helping a nonprofit out and it is for the recipient don't get me wrong but here's what I'll tell you a lot of times for us we think that's why we give it's just for people and and things like that and and it's almost as if we our brains start to think like we are doing a favor we're like doing God a favor by giving right and sometimes we we think and we distort that and and I think what what Paul's trying to say in these verses is this is that when we give out of cheer from a cheerful heart God always gives us more grace in return in other words you could say that I think that giving is for you the point that I think he's trying to say is this is that generosity or giving is not something that God wants from us it's actually something that God wants for you like like that's that that's the point that's really the the summary in a nutshell this series or or this sermon on giving generosity it's not something that God wants from you it's like we don't have to come to him a church on Sunday and give some money in an offering play and think now God can do his thing this week listen let me just remind you God can do his work and his will with or without your help okay so he doesn't need your giving to accomplish his work but what I think Jesus wants for you is this life of generosity and it's not something that God needs from us it's actually something that God wants for you he wants for you because he wants to do something great in your life let me remind you you cannot outgive God he always gives us we've just read about it he always gives us more than what we have to give him he always gives us more as a result and and here's the here's the point you say okay so pastor is that are you saying that if I give and I'm faithful and consistent in my giving that I'm just gonna be I'm gonna be rich in that the point here no it's not at all the point you've missed the point if that's what you think because here's what he's saying is that when you give and when you're generous what you get in return is something worth far more than any amount of silver and gold in life in other words what he's saying is this when we become generous and we serve a generous God so therefore the natural response is that the church should be generous and we should give and things like that when we give here's what he's saying you might not be rich but what you get in return from him is far greater and it far surpasses any amount of money that this world has to offer that's what he's trying to say so he's saying hey be generous and you're gonna be perfectly content be generous and you're gonna experience a peace that you've never experienced before be generous and you're gonna experience safety and security and a peace that passeth all understanding you're gonna experience all of these things and here's what I'll tell you the protection and grace and security and satisfaction and peace and his presence and his contentment all of those things that come from our giving what his point is is this all of those things far surpasses any amount of money that this world has to offer think about it this way like I'm into sports so I look at all of these these deals that athletes make right sees basketball stars football stars there may have millions of millions of dollars right like by the seconds and you see that and here's what's amazing to me is that they're making these incredible contracts and they they want they're all saying I want a different team different coach different whatever and guess what they're going from spouse to spouse and they just can't get happy you want to know what the principle is behind that is that silver and gold will not make us happy right it won't make us happy more money's not gonna make it might be for a season and if you're young in here you're thinking I don't know yet right but the point is is like it doesn't make you happy and and you see that throughout society money doesn't make us happy so what he's saying is this for Christians for the church when we give together here's what his point is is this as a church body as a church family we need to be generous why not because the pastor said not just because of a sermon or whatever here's why it's because be generous because he's changed us he was generous with us so therefore we're generous with him and when we do he's gonna bless us with a life not just money but with a life that is worth more than silver and gold that's the that's the provision of our giving and so all we're responsible for doing is to give so the seeds so the seeds and watch what he does in your life as a result of so you say pastor okay we get it we get what the scripture says you know we're saying what's our what's our next step well I was thinking I think we're all over the spectrum probably in this room right your next step might look differently than somebody else's here in this place so you say what is it I wrote down a few of these things and perhaps this is for some of you for some of you here's what you need to go back to if you were in here and you're thinking man here's another sermon series on money or what what's the pastor doing and you were very like uncomfortable for the few moments that we looked at money here's what I want to challenge you to do I want you to go back to the root and foundation of the gospel in your life and here's what I mean by that as God has been generous with you so you should be generous with those if you're struggling to be generous the scripture says that that's a heart issue for a Christian it goes back to the heart behind all of it and so what you need to do your next step you need to go back to the gospel and think okay what do I have in the gospel God loved me unworthy I was unworthy he gave me his very son right so that I through his poverty might be rich and have a relationship with the Creator and live forever when you go back to the roots of the gospel and you see what you experienced in the gospel there's only one response to that generosity there's only one response to that give right that's just how how that works and so for some of you if you struggle to receive this word from 2nd Corinthians today I would tell you go back to the gospel and the root of it for others in here here's what I would tell you some of you need to give consistently you know you might be in every now and then giver and it might not be a regular part of your Christian experience and here's what I'll tell you is that the scripture it should be a regular part of our Christian experience like when we think about worship we think about music we think about the word we think about prayer we think about all these aspects of worship part of giving is is our worship it's our time to worship by giving him just what he deserves and and the scripture says that you know you follow this throughout the Old Testament about this idea of the tide the tenth of everything that you bring in not a tenth over what's left a tenth over it all is kind of the the point of scripture and you can follow it all the way through and the reason why that was instituted was this is because in the Old Testament everybody farmed that was how they that that's how they lived right that's how they fed their families and so what they would do is they would give God of the firstfruits say why is that is they'd give him the very first because it forced them out of everything that they had they would give him the very beginning of it and it forced them to trust him with the rest that's the reason why we give is because for some of us here's what we do is we we get income and then we spend it every single way that we possibly can and if we have enough left over then we'll give to God and his work well if you fast you know fast forward throughout all the way back through scripture we would find we've really got off target because the reason giving was instituted was this hey we give God first off the top line so that we can trust him with the rest we're gonna trust him to pay for every one of these bills with what we have left over after we give that's the point and so for some of us we need to give consistently you need to make this a a consistent part of your pattern when you receive money that comes in my parents taught me this at a young age and and I don't know what your church experience was growing up and that this probably hard if you weren't taught this at a young age right you got kids and and they play sports and and you got a ton of things going on in your life and mortgages and cars and all this kind of stuff I get it if you've never were taught to give this is probably a hard pill to swallow my parents taught me this like when I got money for birthday parties they would always be like don't forget to tithe off that I'm like do people really do that you know and so I just like but that's what they were instilling with me I got my first job at 15 years old and they told me when I got that job hey you're gonna tithe off this they taught me to give off that top dollar and it's something I don't have to struggle with here today because God has always provided if I am faithful and obedient to what he tells me to do for some of you it's to give consistently for others you might need to give more than you currently give if God is if God has blessed you in abundance and your margin is large listen let me tell you this we're not gonna be able to take all this stuff with us we're not so all I'm gonna say is this is that for some of us we might need to pray about hey God should you stretch me some stretch my giving well there's people that are lost and dying and going to hell all over the world and and and maybe we need to stretch our giving a little bit and give more so that we can see more life change our mission of reaching as many people as possible with the gospel and discipling them into becoming devoted followers of Jesus perhaps you need to give more so that we can see that done more often and that we could get the gospel around more you know I get a missionary reaching out at least one or two a week looking for support and I wish we could support them all right but it takes money it takes generosity in order to do that for them to go wherever God has called them for some of you that's where where it is for others of you here's what your next step might be maybe you give a little bit to the church and you need to start giving the missions or start giving to the building fun that we're in forward in faith and and be a part of what God is leading our church to do I don't know what your next step is that's between you and the Lord and I don't need to know anything about your finances but here's all I'm gonna tell you is this is that generosity it's not something that God needs from you don't leave here and be like man that church needs my money listen God's mission is gonna go forward here whether you give or not okay don't leave here and think man that pastor just wants my money listen you've missed the point you've missed the point if that's what you take from this here's the thing generosity is not something that God wants from us it's something that he wants for you he has something special that he wants to do in your life and it's something that he wants for us can we pray together Becky's gonna come and she's going to play for us here today I just want to invite you to stand at this time for just a just a moment and I know any time we talk about giving you say I'm not gonna come forward I get that and and so but perhaps you need to just pray right there where you are maybe pray with your spouse and just think hey we should evaluate how we're spending our money we should evaluate are we being generous me and my wife had a conversation about this this week I was encouraged to give to this this thing and doing some great work in our city and I'm not kidding I'm just like you I was so like man I don't I don't want to do this we're giving all these other places I'm thinking man God has blessed us and God has given me so much like listen if I give to him he's gonna give me maybe not money but he's gonna give me a piece that's far more important to me than money and so the harvest is up to him and he's promised to provide it but the sewing is up to us as his children whatever your next step is I just want to help you perhaps you're in here today and you say pastor I've never been changed I've just tried to change my outward behavior but you're telling me that it's not about behavior modification it's about heart transformation that's exactly right you see you can't change yourself you can't fix yourself you can't force your way to God there's not enough good things that you can do to inherit a relationship with him and so he came to you he came to you and did all the work for you where all we got to do is accept his free gift of eternal life here today father we love you we thank you for your word even when it speaks to some of those difficult parts of the Christian experience God we're thankful for how it is alive and well and it speaks to us and it convicts us it encourages us it motivates us and it teaches us father God I pray for every single one of us to leave here and be generous not just because of different reasons of necessity and grudgingly but father that we'd leave here and be generous cheerful givers because of what you have given us you gave us your very life you gave up everything for us father we need to be generous and give back to your mission and to your work not only locally but around the world