I don't know about you but I have had some struggles and, and what I mean by that is I've struggled opening packages that come in that like plasticky hard packaging. You know what I'm talking about? I think it's called like a blister pack or like a clam shell packaging. You know what I'm talking about? It's like they like hyper seal it like, like you could almost put government secrets in it. And so like it's, and it's simple products too, right? That you're just trying to open. I remember one time in particular, I bought a pair of scissors cause I needed a pair of scissors. But the problem was it, the packaging was so tight that I needed scissors to open, which is why I bought them in the first place. And so it's hard and so I just left them sitting there until finally we figured it out and we got it open. But uh here's the thing is that I've actually bought stuff and then hesitate to use it because I'm afraid to open it. I wonder when it comes to faith and spirituality, especially as we head into the holiday season, I wonder how many people in this room and beyond have, have taken faith and they brought it home, but they've never taken their faith out of the box. Right. They've never experienced what Christianity is all about. They, they claim to believe in God. Right. They say yes. Um, but they've never actually put their faith in action. They've never actually taken their faith out of the blister pack. It's too hard, it's too difficult. And so instead it sits on a shelf or on a counter and they wonder why their lives aren't changing. Ok. Today's message is designed to help you take your faith out of the blister pack. Ok? So at some points, it's gonna be challenging. At some point I might stand on your toes a little bit. Uh And that's ok because uh my job as a pastor is, is not to always make you feel great, but to preach the word and I want you to know that anything that I'm sharing from here, it really comes from a place that I personally wrestled with too. And so let's wrestle with some scripture together and let's take our faith out of the box today. Ok. All right. Let's jump into it this morning's message is entitled, it's not called Thanks Feeling. Ok? It's not called Thanks Feeling. It's called Thanksgiving. You know, working with kids over the years. I've oftentimes used the phrase gratitude is attitude, right? It's memorable. It rhymes checks a lot of boxes. And so I say it all the time. But here over the years of m here's what I've come to realize is that gratitude is much more than an attitude. In reality. The best gratitude really is an action, isn't it? Right? We do it all the time, right? When you're raising Children and they receive a gift or someone opens the door sometimes, what, what do we get on our kids to say, Say thank you, right? We don't tell our Children feel grateful, right? Because gratitude is not something to be felt. It's something to be expressed, right? And, and it there's an action that takes and this idea of giving that only makes for a great holiday is actually a biblical principle. And it's all over scripture that if we want to be like Jesus, if we really want to become who Jesus was and grow in our faith and take our faith out of the box, take our faith out of the blister pack. Then the best way to do that is actually when we give as Jesus gave, but don't take my word for it. Let's walk through some scripture together. The most famous verse in the Bible, John 316 for God so loved the world that he felt for us. No is that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life that it's not about intention. It's about attention and, and really then action. Right. Well, I thought about it. Right. That would be great. We always say in gifts, right. What's the thought that counts? Um. Oh, Christmas shopping. Done? Awesome. Right. A, a thought does count it and I don't want to discount your attitude, your thoughts, but don't stop there. Right. If you tell your kids to clean the room, you don't want the response to be back. Oh, thank you. I thought about it. You know, I sang a song about a clean room, right? But don't we do that with God? We do that with God, don't we? Right? We're like, oh man, I'm really convicted by the word and then you go to lunch and you're like, what did he say again? Right? Like we do this all the time. And so, but Jesus didn't, he showed his love why he showed his love through what he gave, right? And what did he give? He gave the greatest gift of all Jesus Christ himself. Well, let's walk through some other scriptures. First Peter, 13 and four, praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ in his great mercy. He felt something for us. No, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Psalm 100 verse four and five says, enter his gates again. That's an action. We've talked before about the value of walking a relational pace walking following. After Jesus, there's actions around that enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name that we just sang that song, right? Bless God, bless his name for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations. Paul in Colossians 317 says, and whatever you do in word or do a deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God, the Father through him. Second Corinthians chapter nine verses 6 to 8 says, and the point is this that whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully that each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency and in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. One more passage here says Proverbs 1125 that a generous person will prosper, that whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. I love that joyful generosity is one of the core values of our church. And really values determine what you do and what you do demonstrates what you value. And so we don't wanna just talk about generosity. We, we wanna live it and, and we're not a place where we wanna guilt you into anything. Guilt works a few times doesn't it? But it's not lasting, right? Because guilt is really a transactional change where grace gives you a transformational change, it, it's a transaction. You do this or else, right? Where grace says you do this because this is who we are, this is who God is. And so like what we say around here is that we love to celebrate joyful generosity. Look, if you don't give anything here, I want you to know you're, you're, you're welcome here. We, we love, we, we, we do this for you. We do this for the community. We're outward facing. Everyone is welcome to come to church, right? And we're so glad we're here and we're never gonna guilt you into anything. And because I don't want something from you. I really want something for you. I, I don't want you to miss out last night. My wife and I um got some uh Mexican take out and I, I'm a fajita person. Any other fajita lovers in there. OK. Um And the fajita was good. Don't get me wrong like it was delicious, but it just seemed a little lacking in, take out form. You know what I'm talking about? Have you ever gotten fajitas for to go got it home. It's like it's just good. It's not as good. And I thought about why, what is it? Because in the restaurant, what do you get? It's the sizzle, right? I think I there's probably about half of me that orders the fajitas in restaurants for the sizzle. It feels good, don't it? Like when you hear that sh they walked past all those other peasant tables, right? And it sits down and they're like, don't touch, it's hot like, oh yes, it is. Right. I love the sizzle. Ok. There's something special that happens when you're in the room. Right? When we talk about generosity, generosity brings the sizzle to your faith. Ok? It really does like you can be a part of a church, you can be a part of, of, you know, a community and and it's still pretty good like you're gonna get some things out of it, right? But when you posture your heart and understand that your gratitude towards God leads to generosity towards others. That sizzle comes into your life, right? And it tastes good, right? To quote theologian Nacho Libre. It's good. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. There was they were like tracking with me and they're like, did he just say nacho? Yeah, I did. Sorry. It is what it is. Yes. Right. When we are grateful for what God has done the response, the gratitude goes not just from a feeling, not just from an attitude, but an action of praise and response and worship to him and then generosity towards others. Because God's generosity now flows through us that it uh when you give, when you sacrifice, when you serve, when you love as Jesus love, you're acting as Jesus acted and you get to experience a little bit of that faithful sizzle in your life, right? You're taking your faith out of the box and you're putting it into action and now you're seeing lives change from the people around you. And so for those taking notes because you write this down. This is a big idea for today is that fear weighs what faith multiplies. Fear wastes what faith multiplies. Now it's common to have fear. It is. And we fear a couple of different things, don't we? I'm gonna summarize it. Really. We'll, we'll summarize it into two main. I mean, there's more than that, but I'll just give you two. Number one, we fear that we do not have enough. It's a scarcity mentality, right? If I give what I have away, it will not get replenished and I will not have enough. Right? There's a fear there. And the second fear goes even deeper. And the second fear is this, I am not enough, right? Sometimes we think, oh, I can't share. I can't be generous because I don't have enough. Sometimes we think to ourselves, I can't give, I can't share because that we are not enough that we're not good enough that we're not worthy that we hang on to things to hang on to a perception and that's even a bigger struggle up in this area, right? Because when you see your neighbor driving that car or upgrading that house or getting the latest phone or device or talking or the latest clothes, like you're like, oh man. And now you start to struggle a little bit. Right. I don't have enough or I'm not enough. Those are the two biggest fears, but God wants to move past, past your fears into a place of faith. The God who provides over and over and over. So today we're gonna take a look at a parable and for those um who are just maybe newer to the faith or it's a good reminder, honesty, for those who've been in faith for a long time, a parable is simply a practical story that Jesus tells to illustrate a spiritual truth. Right? People remember in stories, right? People remember in stories, some of you guys will not remember a single thing I say today, but you're gonna go home and you're gonna, and you're gonna go to a restaurant and order some fajitas like I'm OK with that, right? But Jesus himself told stories or illustrations to illustrate deeper biblical truth. And so we're gonna take a look at a parable today. Now, Jesus told 39 parables in the gospels. But did you know that 11 of them actually deal with finances? Now, this one actually deals with even more than finances, but it really gets to the heart of the matter. And so I don't want us to be afraid of that. I'm not like scaring anyone today. Again, we're not doing anything out of guilt or compulsion. But let's see what God's word actually has for us because what if there is something in here that could unlock like a deeper relationship with him? And if Jesus says that we should read it and believe it right and, and, and wrestle with it. And so let's see what Jesus says is a parable of the talents um to set this up. He's actually talking about the end times. Some people were asking questions, uh specifically in Matthew 24 he's asking questions about the end times and, and really was it gonna be like, and so he makes some predictions and things that were gonna happen in the last days. And then we, and it tells a series of, of parables. And so we're jumping into one here in Matthew 25 verse 14, starting in verse 14 as Jesus is speaking, he says for the end. So it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. I love that phrase, entrusted to him, right? God has entrusted you placed in your hands, something that we're called the manager steward, ok? To one, he gave five talents to another two to another one each according to his ability and then he went away. Now, what is a talent in this particular case? A talent is actually a, a physical unit of measure for finances. It was a weight uh some say upwards to like 75 pounds and that is equal to about 20 years wages. So it's even the one talent don't miss this, even the one talent is pretty significant, right? And so I want you to see here that he gives different amounts to different people and then they're gonna use different methods and, and use it differently. And so we're gonna, and they're gonna have different results here. Ok? So we'll continue reading here. So then he went away. So he who would receive five talents, went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more. So also he who had two talents, made two talents more. So one traded, one made tumor. So we don't know exactly how we just know it was different, right? Different methods, different people, different amounts. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more. Saying master you delivered to me five talents here, I made five talents more. And his master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant for you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had two talents came forward saying master you have delivered to me. Two talents here, I have made two talents more. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Verse 24 he also who had received the one talent came forward saying master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And so I was afraid and I went and I hid your talent in the ground here. You have, what is yours? But his master answered him. You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I've not sown and gather where I've not uh where I scattered no seed, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with some interest. So take that talent from him and give to him who has 10 talents for, to everyone who has more will be given and will have an abundance. But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Well, that took a dark turn, didn't it? Hello? Dark? Actually a lot of dark real fast, right? So what's, what's actually happening here? OK. What, what's happening in this story? There's a few things, there's both a earthly perspective, it's practical advice. We're gonna go there and then there's some eternal perspective and this is where the intensity of the end comes into play. OK? So here's the thing is that it's a story. And so it's, it's, it's told to illustrate a deeper spiritual truth. So Jesus representing the master, OK, we reconsider the servants in this case and so gives different amounts OK to different people. Now, sometimes we get so caught up in the trap of comparison and, and we focus on what we don't have, right? We scroll through social media and we think if I only had this, if I only lived here, right? If I only and we, and we fill in the blank and here's the thing. We get caught in this comparison trap we think to ourselves. Oh, I'm a, I'm a one talent kind of guy. If I had two talents, you know what I mean? Oh, there are five talents we do this in church world too, right? We think, oh, they got so much. They don't need anything. But you ever stop to think that God's not gonna hold you accountable for what somebody else has. God's not gonna hold you accountable for or for who someone else was called to be. It says in Hebrews 12 it doesn't say run somebody else's race. OK? We compare I'm just gonna go here, right? Because let's be real. What else do we do. We criticize, don't we? We criticize other people's talents too, don't we? But what I found is that it's God doesn't really call us to criticize others, but instead create with what he's given us. And when you're busy creating, it's hard to find time to criticize. It doesn't say in the story and one servant criticized the other servant. Well, of course, you have five talents. Look, one talent is still 20 years, wage wages. That's a lot. And at the end of the day, the master didn't bless the servant based on the amount, but rather the mindset. That's what generosity is. Generosity is not an amount. It's a mindset, it's a posture of the heart and there are some people in this room and now I want you to take this at the financial standpoint. Yes. But now let's expand it beyond that, right? What is God placed in your hand relationally? What is God placed in your hand from a gifting standpoint in your abilities? Because you're called the steward that too. And I sometimes wonder are there people in the room who are bearing what God gave them to build with? I think a great financial investment back in the day would have been Bob's barricades. You know, I'm talking about those little orange cone looking things that sit on the roadside and say, hey, construction happening. Uh It just tells you that construction is happening and they sit there, you know what's frustrating if you're a driver is when you see those along the road and then no construction ever happens. You ever been frustrated by that? Like you have been here for weeks, right? We get frustrated with that. But how many of you have placed cones in your own life? Oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna read my Bible this year. I'm, I'm gonna start giving, I'm gonna start serving this year. I'm gonna start helping this year and we, and we start putting out the cone saying like, hey, we're about to do some work and then we get tired from setting the cones out. Like, ah, that's kind of, I'm good just as it's frustrating to drive in a construction zone where there is no construction i, within our own Christian lives. Are we willing to put in the work? Now, let me clarify this too though. You're putting in the work with what God gave you, right. Uh, my middle son, Carter, he's my jokester. And, uh, there was a time when I came in and he goes here d I, uh, I wanna give you something. I was like, oh, thanks. Um, and he pulled out this wad of cash and he handed to me and I was like, thanks bun, but I, I some skepticism and I was like, where did you get this? He goes your wallet? Yes. Right. And it was cute and it was fun. But we have to understand, look, when we give to God. We're giving back what he's already given to us. But anything he's placed in our hand, then he calls us not to compare, not to criticize, but to go and create, go and do what God's called you to do, go and be who God's called you to be. And generosity is not, it is not an amount, it is a mindset. You're not gonna be judged off of what somebody else gives. It's not even the total amount. It's the mindset that you have behind it. Notice that the different people, different amounts, different methods come back and say, hey, I bring this back to you. God, I've steward what you've placed in my hand. I've, I've built with what you've give blessed me with and God says enter in with joy, but the other person flips it and goes, I was afraid I know that you are a difficult man. I see there's the abundance mindset, there's the scarcity mindset, right? Fear will waste what faith multiplies? I think God has called us to invest. So, in your relationships, are you investing in those in with your gifts and ability in your workplace? Are you investing doing that to the glory of God? See, we have to get outside of this mindset that our American Christianity has entered into and that is this that we separate the secular and the sacred, right? What I do on a Sunday has no correlation with what I do Monday through Saturday, there really isn't a secular and sacred. The reality is for the believer. Everything is sacred. So what you say, how you treat people, how you write that email, right? Is a reflection of your relationship with God. And the beauty is we don't have to be perfect because life is messy. Scripture is super messy and filled with stories of people who continually mess up and God uses them to build his kingdom. I love that. So we have to ask ourselves in an area in your life, maybe it's finances, right? But maybe it's relationships, maybe it's in your gifting. Are, are you, are you burying something that God's given you to build with? Right? Are you operating from a place of fear? Are you walking in place of faith? Now, why is that last verse so extreme? I think the last verse is so extreme because I think that third person represents a fake believer, a poser, a pretend to be believer. And I say that because when you think about what is the greatest gift that God can place in your hands? The reality is is that our greatest gift is what the gift of salvation, the gift of eternal life. Ok. It says that Romans 623 for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, right? John 316, John God gave us his son, right? Like there's this gift that we receive. So when you receive that. And then Jesus tells you to what now to take that blessing to multiply that to go and make disciples among nations, to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea to the ends of the earth to go and share that message, to share that good news. We are called to multiply it. And so if you've genuinely received the good news of Jesus into your life, then you have that abundance mindset and you go and you freely share that with others. In this case, the servant takes it and says, ah, I don't wanna lose it. I'm, I'm out and then buries it and comes back and goes here. If we're called the steward, the message of the gospel, and we're not sharing freely with others, then we do have to wrestle with the fact. Like, are we genuinely in relationship with God? So, in, in view of just some financial concerns, it seems a little extreme when he says, cast the servant out. But in view of eternity and the descriptions there are used in other places that describes hell. Then what he's saying there is if you reject God, that's the only other place you're going, right? That even in the parable of talents, it's really a gospel message. What is the gospel? The gospel is, is that we're all sinners. We, we don't deserve heaven that we cannot make it to heaven on our own that we've all missed the mark that we've, we've rejected a holy, perfect God. But God came down, lived a perfect life, died on the cross as payment for your sins. And for mine was buried. And on the third day, rose again and when he rose again, demonstrated that he truly is Lord and Savior. That when we admit that we've sinned, believe that Jesus is God, believe that Jesus is Savior. And through Jesus alone, you can go to heaven and be saved. When we commit our lives to Him, we receive your total life and we're forever changed by that. And then we spend the rest of our lives living a grateful response to be generous towards others with what God has already blessed us with, right? Because you cannot out give God. So there is an earthly principle. Are you stewarding? Are you investing? Are you serving? Are you generous with what God's placed in your hands? And then there's an eternal principle of saying that if you truly believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior to let us not bury what God's called us, to build with the goal and to bless the world around us. I'm excited for this next season and I'm excited that over the next couple of weeks as we lead up to Christmas here, we're launching our end of year campaign here which we did this last year. And it's simply entitled, share the Love, share the love. It's tied to two years ago. We set out uh in a building project that we entitled uh The Crazy Love project based out of Second Corinthians where we felt compelled by the love of Christ to, to go into our first building here and end up multiplying ministry to reach more people with the good news of Jesus Christ in December. That that project comes to a close and I shared with you back in October where we were. And so let me share a little update with you. So if you like numbers, here's numbers, if you don't like numbers, it's only on the screen for a few minutes. So here it is here. So our project for the beginning of the building that you're sitting in now, we thought that it was gonna cost about a million dollars with inflation and other things that ended up costing about 1.4 million, ok? 1.4 million. Now negotiating the lease in here, we got what's called tenant improvement allowance. And so they gave us $20 per square foot, which so that equals about uh $228,000. Um in there that work came to knock off that cost that came from the landlord so far through crazy love. We've raised $624,000. Um And so we set two goals, a $600,000 goal. So first round of applause, we hit the lower goal was awesome. Um We were trying to raise up to 750. That was kind of our, our bigger number goal here. Um So that's been awesome. Now, we've also said that we were gonna give away 10% of what comes in through crazy love uh to charities and outreach and local missions and global missions. And so we've actually given away uh $68,000 of that as well as when we came in here instead of selling the equipment uh worth about $45,000 of mobile equipment, we actually gave away uh all of our equipment. So we've actually um given financial or asset wise, we've given away over $100,000 in the last two years to bless the community and beyond. Ok. Um But here's where God's been so good. You have to understand this, that we've seen miracle after miracle after miracle because there have been organizations, there have been anonymous individuals um who came and given large gifts and, and said, we believe in what God's doing here and we want to support that. So from organization to, to people on top of what we've raised within the room, we've seen another $490,000 come in. Amen. That was not part of our raising here. And so because of that, um here is the church that's only a couple of years old, $1.4 million project in less than two years. Uh We only owe 100 and $26,000 left on the loan. That's pretty good. Right. That's pretty good. That's awesome. Um, so for those who wanna know numbers, that's where we are. So that's the building we're sitting in here. Right. It was a big change. We, we completely remodeled the space that came in here. We've doubled in attendance. We've, over the last two years, we've baptized 56 people. Uh, we've seen 300 people in groups. We've seen student ministry launch. We've seen uh Kid Min Three double. We've seen over 200 people serving each and every week. Uh We've planted churches internationally, uh through the Timothy initiative. We've planted another church locally called Grafted Church that meets on the west side of the valley. And so God's continuing to move. And so here's the challenge here between now and Christmas. Ok. Let's just get real practical here is that you can make a difference. It's called the Share the Love campaign that we're trying to complete the crazy love project. It's two years of this project is that number one. I wanna challenge you to give to the crazy love project. I want chance to do that. I It's up to God for what he's gonna place on your heart for what amount for what that's for. And if, and if you're like pushing back, pushing back, look, I, I'm not gonna force you to and we love that you're here. Ok? I'm not wanting something from you. I want something for you. OK. Uh All I ask is that, will you commit to praying to God asking God, what are you calling me to do? Right? What are you placing in my hand? And I wanna challenge you specifically, if God's working on your heart, right? To give some people might be given something they've never given before. Some people are gonna be called to give significantly. But my prayer is that all of us collectively will give sacrificially. I'm telling you this from experience. I was someone who got into the ministry who didn't really understand the value of giving. Um And, but when my wife and I made that change and instead of giving and tithing or giving beyond that, it, it, it impacts your mindset, your attitude and it takes, takes your heart from just a place of thank you God to thank you God and responding and living differently. And so we wanna move also beyond a financial thing here. And I wanna challenge you to go ahead then and invite someone to church. Invite someone to experience this Christmas series. I promise you, we're gonna make it awesome. It's gonna be fun. It's gonna be incredible. Invite someone to come. Maybe it's Christmas Eve, maybe it's one of our services leading up. Maybe it's sharing your story and sharing the gospel with that coworker. That friend. Don't bury the news that God has changed your life with, right? Don't bury that, go and share that with the people around you. And the last thing here is to serve, find a way to make a difference in your community. Use your gifts and your abilities to serve whether you're in the church or outside of the church, in your workplace, at the school, at a local nonprofit to bring a meal to a neighbor. Right? What if this holiday season wasn't a season that you thought about serving? That you went ahead and you served? Right? What if this was a time where we didn't just experience thanks feeling, but instead worship God through thanksgiving or a time or talents or a treasure. Will you do that with me? Let's pray dearly father. Just thank you for your example. Thank you for all that you've done God. I pray as we end this year that we, we just be like the servants who invested what you've given to them and whatever you've placed into our hands. God, I pray they'd be willing to give to you of our time, our talent, our treasure, we, we experience the joy that comes from taking our faith out of the box and trusting you with our resources to make a difference for your kingdom. Let us take a step towards generosity. Today. We put our faith in you. We love you, God. It's in your son's name. We pray. Amen.