Can we agree that most people want to enjoy their life? Right? Was that, is that a fair assessment? Like, I don't think there's anybody that came in this morning and said, you know what, John, I'm just too happy. That's it. It's a problem. I'm just too joyful, you know. No, the reverse is actually true that we live in a culture where we are searching and, and we are searching for meaning and we're searching for joy. And so as we search for that, I think we live in a culture that teaches us to pursue joy in all the wrong places. We're in a series entitled Uncommon Sense because the world's way isn't working. And today's message is entitled Uncommon Joy. Because what if the key to experiencing joy was not the accumulation of stuff, but rather when we give generously to God and to one another, I think generosity is the key to unlock joy in your life. Now, let me just preface something for you. I I'm I get it as soon as, as soon as a preacher says, giving her generosity, sometimes you're like, 00 I came on that Sunday. OK. Um Here's the truth though. OK, I, I'm not asking anything from you today. I really, truly humbly and honestly just want something for you and I wanna have a conversation from scripture of what does God say? And then, and it's, it's one of those kind of eyes on your own paper, kind of Sunday. Um Where here's the thing is that we're gonna ask some reflective questions at the end, but you're the one grading your own paper here. So, uh so I want you, I want you just to have a conversation and to evaluate our thoughts and, and what are we thinking a around the terms of generosity? Because I truly believe it can unlock joy in your life. Now, when we come here in into this conversation, I want to start things off by asking this question to give yourself kind of three buckets to kind of put yourself in. Again, you are putting yourself in one of these buckets. But do you view giving as a habit as a holiday or a hurdle is giving a habit, a holiday or a hurdle for you? Here's what I mean, habit is really a consistent behavior. Something that you do on a regular basis. Generosity isn't so much an amount as it is a mindset. It's not a moment as much as it is really a muscle, right? And so when you are a generous person, you give on a regular basis, uh it's, it's, it sounds so obvious, but yet we miss it. Right. How do you become a generous person by giving? Right. It's, it's similar like, like John, like I really just wanna grow in my Bible knowledge. OK? Have you read the Bible? No, let's start there. Right. Right. Like if you want to grow, you gotta, you gotta read, right. Same thing if yeah, I wanna, I wanna become a person that has an incredible prayer life. Where do you start by praying? Right? The habits that we want go from a mindset then ultimately to a muscle, something that we practice and then ultimately leads to a ministry. And so is giving a habit for you a consistent behavior or the second bucket is, is giving and being a generous person, is it more like a holiday for you? And what I mean by that is that it is something that you like, it feels good. But in reality, it's probably once or twice a year, right? It's something that you occasionally do and ironically enough, it actually tends to be around holidays, right? Like, oh, yeah, it's nice. I like that. But is it a consistent behavior in life? Maybe not? Ok. I know that's a reality for many. So then that third bucket here is, is giving and generosity is a hurdle for you. Now, if the fact that I just said the word generosity or giving and you had kind of a reaction internally, I want you to ask yourself this question, if generosity is a hurdle, where do you think that comes from? Where does it come from? Just have a reflective moment and think what happened in your life that caused you to kind of react to that because it's very real. It, I, I don't think it was a coincidence. One, I'm a horrible speller but two, when I was writing out this message, I actually misspelled HLE originally instead of HLE with AD, which is the noun which means barrier. Uh You think of like track, you jump over hurdles. OK. That's hurl with ad. I actually spelled it with att le uh which that actually is a verb which means to move quickly through or to hurl something over. So, um but what was interesting when I wrote it, I think subconsciously, I was thinking about a hurdle meaning hurt hu rt that I think what happens is that in our lives, we react when someone has hurt us in the past. So when it comes to giving and generosity is there somebody that betrayed your trust, right? That scammed you so to speak. That said one thing did something else because church hurt is very real. And so I wanna acknowledge that because sadly, I've seen too often uh not just in church world, in the world, in general, someone promise something and then do something else, right? They say, you know, if you want blessing, give to this and we'll give you this hanky or something. Meanwhile, I'm buying my 2nd and 3rd jet. You know what I mean? Like if you've seen that, like, that's very real what happens in the world today. And so if you've been hurt by someone or by something or maybe someone didn't come through for you, I want you to examine that acknowledge where that comes from. But then I also want you to do this because we could probably think of a bad example of generosity or lack thereof. But what I want you to do is I want you to also pause and think on somebody who has a positive influence in your life, who is somebody who is a role model, who is somebody who has helped you, who is somebody that's invested in you and think who is somebody that has influenced your life in a positive way? My guess is that person that you're thinking about is a generous person. They took their time, their resources, their gifts and invested in you and maybe gave to you when you had nothing necessarily to give back to them. And so while it is true that we have negative examples of generosity in our world today, don't let the hurt of something bad stop you from the impact and joy that you actually have access to. Because when you think about it here's and you can take a note, you can write this down that giving at its core, giving leads to growing, giving leads to growing again. We're not talking about a specific amount here. We're talking about a mindset that then leads into a muscle that we can develop, that then leads to an impact and influence of ministry. We've been walking through the same passage the last couple of weeks together of the early church that hey, if the, if the world's way isn't working, what did the early church do that we could still live out today? Because the early church was marked by joy. Happiness in itself tends to be circumstantial. So it can come and go. But joy like deep seated, meaningful, long lasting joy comes from God. And we see that in the early church. And so let's read through some scriptures and see their practices of generosity and see how ultimately it leads to joy and where does it actually come from? So acts chapter two, verse 42 to 47 it says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and the prayers and all came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles and all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had a need and day by day attending the temple together breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved, you see this picture of giving and a culture of generosity that impacts it. It's interesting that just from a psychological standpoint, uh am minimalist author and researcher, a guy named Joshua Becker a few years ago, actually, just through the studies in psychology, actually noted from a humanistic perspective that generosity actually, science and and surveys show that generosity does five things that number one generosity makes people happier. Number two, generosity actually makes people healthier. Number three, the generosity actually increases someone's life satisfaction. Number four, that generosity actually increases generosity. In other words, when you're generous with someone, they tend to be more generous with others. And then number five, generosity actually has been scientifically proven to improve someone's relationships. So if we know that being a generous person makes you happier, healthier, improves your satisfaction of life, increases generosity within a community and improves your relationships, why are people not doing it well? Because the world preaches something different, the world tells you to get what you can while you can. That the person on the top of the mountain with the most toys and the most clicks and the most likes and the most money in the account wins at the end of the day. But that's just not true. Money is not bad, right? So much of ministry, early Ministry started because the generosity of people. But money is a tool that you can use to build God's kingdom or your own kingdom, right? It to, to be bitter or or to be a blessing and see the idea of giving is actually not originated with us. It actually comes from God. You see God gave and we were created in his image, God is the one who gave. And when we give, we are acting in the image of God most famous verse in the Bible, John 316 for God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. That pattern of love expressed through giving runs through in our relationships as well. You see what I've come to find to be true is that you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. No, I know I know you can give without loving because we just wrapped up tax season, right? No one's like here you go. Government like if you are, we might need to have some other conversation. Just do do your part just OK. Anyway, you can give without loving but you cannot love without giving. I'm so glad I am so glad that that verse does not say for God so loved the world that he felt something. Mm A world doesn't, our world doesn't change when you feel something, it changes. When we do something, the other side of generosity. Gratitude, right? Same thing there. We don't want people to feel grateful. We want people to express gratitude, right? If you're a parent in the room, we've all done this, someone gives something to your child. What do you look down at your child and say, say thank you. Yeah, we don't do that with God. But yet we're the same, we're just larger Children is what we are, right? Because gratitude is not something to be felt. It's something to be expressed. And the same thing goes with love that we don't just simply express our love with how we feel. We express our love with what we give. And God modeled that in giving everything to us. He gave a son. And we shared last week when we talked through the value of relationships that God, the Trinity, God, the father Jesus son and the Holy Spirit already had perfect relationship. So he didn't create us simply to get something from us. He created us to show and to give something to us. And he routinely sets the example of generosity in giving and serving and loving others. And then he tells us to go and do likewise. James 117 says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights, a parent who loves their child like loves giving gifts. It's fun to give a good gift and to see that reaction, that smile right on a birthday or Christmas or, or in a gift. Like, it's fun to see those surprises. Right. Like, don't get me wrong. Like, I love pulling pranks on my kids. I, if I can write a little jokes, like, I love to joke around but I'm not gonna be like, happy birthday, son. Here's a ball of spikes. Ha. Got em, like, be, like, that'd be weird. Right? Ok. Well, if earthly parents and earth and, like, not even Christian related relationships, if we enjoy gift giving to one another, how much more so does the God of the universe love giving gifts to you. And I, I mean, when you look around, I mean, you see the beauty of sunsets here in Arizona, right? That's a gift, right? Every day is a gift. And I didn't understand that gift until I moved here because I grew up in the Midwest and from November through March, you didn't have a sunset, you just had gray and slightly less gray, right? No, I get, we have the flip side of that. We got summer coming. I mean, yesterday I walked outside and I heard a collective Arizonian comment of, oh, man, here we go. You know what I'm saying? I'm, but every gift, every good gift at its core comes from God. We have a God who gives gifts, we will have a God who loves giving and then tells us to do likewise. First Timothy 617 says as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. But on God who notices who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. God wants you to enjoy life. God wants you to have eternal life, but also He wants you to have abundant life. There is this Greek word Zoe like in, in John 1010, this Zoe life, this life of vitality and fullness that He wants you to experience that. And so if we want to have that life of joy, we cannot, you cannot have a life of joy and live a life of selfishness. Also, shellfish, I tend to list, have a list and so you can't be selfish and you can't have shellfish apparently just the joys of public speaking. Um You cannot be a s a selfish person and experience the joy that God created you for. You cannot completely live for yourself and experience all that God has created you for because that's not how God designed life to be. It says there in Jeremiah 2911 or as I call the graduation verse, right? We're coming up to graduation season. And so we're gonna, and students that are graduating high school or college are gonna get a card and you're hoping it's got a gift card or money in it. And if it's got a religious card, it's probably got this verse in it. Ok? And it says in here for, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for evil to give you what to give you a future and a hope. We worship a God who gives Matthew 19 to 20 chapter six, verse 19 to 21 Jesus is speaking and he says, do not lay up for yourself. Treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where the 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, I think why people are afraid to talk about money and generosity and extends beyond resources into our time and, and talents as well. But I think we're afraid to talk about money because our bank accounts don't lie, right? Like it's just true. It doesn't lie like, you know, where your heart is of where you spend your time and where you spend your money. It is true. It, it, it's, it's just a reality. We can't really fake that. And so that's why I think he puts it in this way. He doesn't say where your heart is there, your treasure will be. He says where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. Where's my heart? Well, where are you spending your time? How are you spending your money? What's going on in your life? That's telling me where your priorities are. Ok. We go back to that first Timothy chapter six passage verse 18 and 19. It says they are to do good to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. Thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that, which is truly life. This is why I think being generous is so key to being joyful that if you want to take hold of that, which is really life, take a step in the direction of generosity. Again, it's not a specific amount. It's a mindset. It's not a one time thing, it's a muscle, it's, it's uh look, I'm not, I'm not someone that's gonna try to stand up here and guilt somebody into anything. I'm not making a big ask at the end of the service. OK? I generally want something for you, but we live, we live in a world that says someone's trying to get something from you. And God comes in and says, I'm gonna give you everything. And if you want to take hold of that, which is life, you become a generous person as I have been generous with you and you're gonna receive that joy that you've been searching for. Second Corinthians chapter nine verses 6 to 8 says the point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver says God is able to make all grace abound to you. So that having all si in all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work you reap what you sow, right? You will never become tomorrow. What you're not becoming today. Yeah. How many have heard that phrase? It's more blessed to give than it is to receive. Anyone heard that phrase in our culture? Maybe not, apparently. And everyone's just staring at me. I'm guessing that some of you have heard that phrase. OK. I'm guessing that even if you're not Christian, you've probably heard that phrase and while scientifically and psychologically, it's proven true, right? Generosity tends to lead to a happier, healthier, more satisfying life. It actually comes from the words of Jesus. And what's interesting about these words? It's actually Paul quotes Jesus directly, but he's not quoting what we read in the gospels. See, the gospels were all written, Matthew, Mark Luke and John, the first four books in the New Testament. Each gospel account was written for a specific angle or purpose of to tell the life of Jesus. But by no means, is it the entirety of what he said and did? And this is one of these examples. So it's a direct quote of Jesus, but actually not found in the gospels. It's one of the few occasions in scripture that's found that, but it's actually found in acts chapter 20 verse 35 Paul's uh speaking here. He says in all things, I've shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive. No, I don't know about you. But if you're talking about people that interacted with Jesus Paul had a special experience on the road to Damascus found in acts nine. But if the disciples are regularly giving this message to the point where in acts chapter two, we already saw people were giving everything to each other and sharing and meeting needs and helping, you know that Jesus didn't just say this one time that it was a regular rhythm in his ministry and in his life and then he lived it out and gave everything he had for those in need so much. So that then the early church starts in acts two. The first passage we read today and the natural response of receiving the grace of God is to turn around and give it to those in need, which is everyone I heard this quote recently and it stuck out to me and I, I'm just gonna say it's unknown because I heard it from a guy named Howard Dayton. But then he said, somebody once said, so I don't know the origin of the quote. But here it is giving is not God's way of raising money. It's God's way of raising people into the likeness of a sun. I find that to be so true. God created the world as we know it. He's not after the money in your wallet. He's after the idol in your heart. One of the best ways to keep something from an idol is to go from this right to this. Are you clinging to possessions? Are you clinging to money? Are you cleaning the power to fame? To pleasures? We talked about the source idols from week one. Are you saying, God, I give you my life. I gave everything to you because you gave everything to me. He's not trying to raise money here. He's trying to raise his people and he lived the example of being a generous person. Well, the best way to become a generous person is simply to take a step. See, it's not so much destination as it is direction because one step on the path of generosity could change the direction of your life. The world is gonna try to teach you to go one way. Get all you can while you can. The person with the most stuff wins. You gotta look cool, sound cool, dress cool, be cool. And God says, no, you want the key to life. The key to joy is to receive the grace of God that all that I've given you and then to give to others the way I've given to you and you don't have. Here's the thing that's awesome about this. You don't have to compare your start your chapter one to somebody else's chapter 10 because we do that all the time, right? Like maybe some of you are feeling motivated, ok? I gotta get healthy and you go to the gym and right next to you at the gym is the person who hasn't missed the gym in about 10,000 days, right? You're like, oh, I'm not that person, I'm out but your health is not dependent on somebody else's workout, right? I didn't share this first hour but just coming to me right now. So I'll share, we'll see if this translate with anybody. Um Growing up played some video games like old school video games, the originals, you know what I'm talking about? Like you got, you got Pong, you got Atari, you got Nintendo, you got Super Nintendo like we progressed like I get it. Video games have gotten way better than what we had. But what's a weird trend I think is that it used to be, right? People previ games like we went outside. That's a novel concept. And uh we went from playing outside to playing inside to playing games. So then the next generation then started watching people play games, right? And then now you'll see videos of people reacting to people watching, playing games. So pe like this is like, how far down the rabbit hole are we going? People, like, someone is watching, like, you're watching a video of somebody watching a video of somebody playing a game that's not even real. Right. That just seems odd. Ok. I wonder though how many of us are doing that spiritually we're watching or an organization or somebody else watching someone else judging from afar, whether how good someone is or isn't, but you're not, your joy does not be dependent on the person next to you. Your journey is not the same as somebody else. You don't have to compare your chapter one to somebody else's chapter 10, right? And God doesn't say OK, do this and all of a sudden you're gonna be material, materially blessed and have all of those riches. No, that's not how life works. Like if you read the early founders of the church, they, they definitely suffered and struggled. But you know what they had, even in their worst moments, they had joy, they had purpose. Yeah. Do you have stuff or does stuff have you the key to unlock that joyful life comes in the ability to give away because giving ultimately leads to growing, giving leads to growing. And let's just be real practical here. OK? I wanna ask you four reflective questions, your eyes on your own paper here, right? Like you are asking yourself these questions, OK? And if you're mad at the grader, you're the one grading. Ok. So, but just, just be honest here. Ok. When it comes to generosity is giving a habit, a holiday or a hurdle? Is it a consistent practice? Is it something you've maybe done in a once in a little while or is there some pain involved? Right. If it's a barrier, if it's a hurdle, can you identify where it came from? Can you grieve that loss, grieve that? But then also flip it. Can you picture someone who's had a positive impact on your life? My guess is that person was a generous person. What if you were that person for somebody else? What if you became the generous person in your family in your life, in your friend group at your workplace? Because when somebody goes above and beyond, we not, we notice it, don't you? Second question is to go with it then is OK. Who is a generous person in your life? How do you feel about that person? OK. Who is somebody who's invested in you? And can you identify what aspects about that relationship has impacted you? Because what if you were that person for somebody else? Third question is, are you generous with your time, your talent and your treasure? It's not just about resources. It is include resources for sure. Right. But maybe it's a, it's going the extra mile to impact. I don't know, teachers, we have teachers and stuff in the room, right. Doing all the unseen work so that those kids have the opportunity to learn. Maybe it's a coach to do all that unseen work to make sure your team has the best chance to win or the attention to detail in that presentation so that your business goes really well, or the, or the, the mile, the extra step taken for that gift to show that you care for that loved one. A lot of your life, it's gonna be unseen by the world around you. But I want you to know who sees that and it's God and what you do when no one is around shapes who you are publicly as well. Are you willing to give up your time to meet the needs of the people around you? Are you willing to give of your talents, your gift, your abilities, right? Can you encourage that person? Can you send that text, make that phone call, make the meal, you can use what you're passionate about and give to the world around you in food, in art, in business and health, right? And music, whatever God has given you is actually not for you. It's for the world around you and for Him. And then lastly, are you giving of your treasure? The final reflection question then is wherever you are in your faith journey. If it's a hurdle, if it's a holiday, if it's a habit, are you willing to take a step this week? Are you willing to go from here? Instead of this way to simply take one step. If generosity has been a hurdle for you, I invite you to give something to try it, to give something this week, to give something to God to make a difference in the lives of others. If generosity is, is more of a holiday, you like it. It's nice, but you don't do it that much. I want to invite you to, to give significantly to make a commitment. So, you know what, for the next month I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna try this and put the needs of others ahead of my own. And lastly, if Gibbs already a habit for you, first of all, praise God, praise God in every step of his journey. I want a chance to, to give sacrificially. I can say freely that this is not a guilt thing, this is a grace thing because my own journey, I didn't really come to understand the generosity of resources, just my own personal journey. And so I was actually already a pastor on staff at a church. That's a little awkward. My wife and I were married, we were working, we had this and got kind of convicted on our hearts for that. And that's tougher as you get older, right? Like you have more resources and as you go. But we, we prayed, we talked, we planned. I said, you know what? We wanna make this mind shift. We want to try to build our generosity muscle in our lives. And we made a commitment then and now I can say it's become a habit and we're not perfect. Nobody is. But I can tell you it has shaped my life and I think, and I know and believe that it will shape your life too. So if you're ready to grow, if you're wanting the joy, consider the God who gave everything to you and consider taking a step towards generosity today. Will you pray with me, dear heavenly Father? Thank you God. I think about so many in this room and beyond who have so generously given of their time and of their talent, of their treasures. God, we would not be here as a church without the obedience of those in this room and beyond God, we praise you for that people who have quietly surrendered their lives to you and been an impact in this community. God, wherever we are in this journey, I pray that we can take the next step of obedience that you can work in our lives. Because our greatest joy comes from you as you've already given us all that we need for Godliness. We receive that in grace. God, I praise every single person that is here today. I gotta pray for them and I pray for our church that we would be a generous church, that we would be a community, a gathering of people called out for the specific purpose to be a blessing in this community. And beyond that, we can be people that are known by how we love, by how we give and how we serve that. We may reflect your glory to the people and lives around us. Thank you for giving to us. We praise you for all that you are and we surrender what we have to you and your son and we pray amen.