Speaker 1: 0:13

So April 22nd 1990, exactly 35 years and one month ago from today, a group of 12 adults, five kids, one infant and myself gathered together for the very first time in Benicia, and that was the beginnings of Northgate Christian Fellowship. I think we have pictures there we are. That's church in my living room. That's when I had hair I actually had a I was cruising a mullet back then and that was the beginnings of our very first gathering here in Benicia. Now, it wasn't the first time that we had gotten together.

Speaker 1: 0:58

Actually, for about the first, about two months prior to this, we had been meeting together and talking about and kind of envisioning what it would be like to be a church for unchurched people, what it would be like to be a church whose vision and purpose was to help unchurched people become wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ. By the way, anybody want to guess what is the most unchurched region in all of the United States? If you guessed, the San Francisco Bay Area, you got it. We live in one of the most unchurched areas of the country. We live in one of the most unchurched areas of the country and we started with this vision of what would it look like if we purposely went and tried to reach unchurched people and what that would mean for us. Because what that would mean for us that group of 12 adults and five kids and one infant would mean if we're going to be reaching unchurched people, well then they're not going to know about Jesus unless we tell them. So it's going to be up to us to build relationships and meet people and share our faith and invite them to be a part of our group. And if we're reaching unchurched people, well, they don't have any ministry or church experience, or very little maybe, and so it's going to be all on us to do all of the work of the ministry, at least when we get started. And because we were going to be reaching unchurched people who are not usually regularly giving to a church, it is going to be up to us to support this work financially. So we started talking honestly about what this was going to look like.

Speaker 1: 2:36

And then, at the end of all of those informational meetings, what I did was I asked everybody that was a part of that group to say now I want you to go home and I want you to pray over this and I want you to think about this and let God move your heart. And then what I want you to do is to write me a letter and in that letter I want you to write to me why you believe God is calling you to be a part of this new church project, what areas of ministry that you are willing to serve in because you're going to have to be serving in ministry and that you are willing to commit financially to make this thing get going. So by the time we met for the very first time there in my living room, we were all in. Now we didn't know what we were all in for, but we were all in. We were making that commitment.

Speaker 1: 3:28

And then over the years, all of those things that we talked about in that meeting, we kind of refined over the years to really say these become our core values, that we are going to be a grace-filled community where everyone is welcome, no matter where they've been or what they've done. They'll be welcome with us. And that also means that we are all going to recognize that we are all people in process. None of us has it all together, none of us has it all figured out. None of us are perfect. We are just going to learn and grow together with each other, and that we are going to be redemptive in our relationships. In other words, recognize that God brings people across your path and he's doing something in their life, as he's doing something in your life and they may not even know it yet, but part of our job is as Christ followers all in Christ followers is to help people see what God wants to do with their life so they would come to put their faith and trust in him and that we would recognize that all of our lives is an act of worship, not just what we do when we get together on Sunday morning, but how we live our lives in a way that honors and glorifies God, that our worship is meant to be a lifestyle.

Speaker 1: 4:44

And then that last one, that core value that we said we are called to live generous lives, lives of generosity. And the reason we picked that as one of our core values from the very, very beginning is it goes all the way back to the book of Acts, chapter four, where it talks about that God's grace was so powerfully at work among them all, that early church, that there were no needy persons among them, that people were generous and cared for and gave for each other, because Jesus had taught about generosity. Jesus had taught about using your resources for the kingdom of God, and the apostle John. He wrote about it in his letter, and James did in his letter, and the apostle Peter did too, and Paul wrote about it. Paul gave instructions to a young pastor named Timothy of the church in Ephesus and told him make sure that you tell your people about not to put their trust in their wealth but to be generous and to share, and he also wrote about. Paul also wrote about it to the church in Rome, he wrote about it to the church in Philippi and he wrote it in both of his letters to the church in Corinth and that's where we're going to kind of focus this morning.

Speaker 1: 5:54

His second letter to the church in Corinth. Let me read to you from chapter 9, 2 Corinthians 9. If you want to follow along with your Bible app, you can Otherwise just listen. This is what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, for I know your eagerness to help and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you and Achaia were ready to give and your enthusiasm stirred most of them to action. But I'm sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we not to say anything about you would be ashamed about having been so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance to finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.

Speaker 1: 6:48

Remember this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to you, not reluctantly or under, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver and God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor. Their righteousness endures forever. Now, he who supplies seed for the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God because of the service by which you have proved yourselves. Others will praise God for your obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

Speaker 1: 8:13

So this morning I want to unpack this as a part of our All In series. I want to kind of unpack this idea of living generously. It's a pattern throughout the New Testament. It's how God designed us to live, and I want to start with this really simple idea Living generously is a choice. Generous living is a choice. I have never met anyone who stumbled into a life of generosity. It doesn't happen by accident, because it's our natural bent is to keep and hoard, so it's a choice. Paul wrote about it this way. He said each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. So let me give you a little bit of background, because you've got to know what's going on with this whole thing.

Speaker 1: 9:03

It all goes back to the scripture that Pastor Larry started this whole series on. When Jesus gave the commission to his disciples, he said go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Jesus gave that commission to his followers and then he ascended back up into heaven and then, on the day of Pentecost, about 50 days later, the Holy Spirit exploded on the scene and it says the church grew in one day to 3,000 people. 3,000 people in one day put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Now that's a huge talk about church growth. That is huge. And what happened was everybody was so excited and the church was growing and great things were happening and all of that, that they missed the first part of what Jesus had said, because God is doing all these great things and our church is growing and man, all this stuff is so cool. But Jesus said go. And they stayed, and they stayed, and they stayed.

Speaker 1: 10:13

And it's not until you get to chapter eight that a great persecution breaks out against the church. And it's not until you get to chapter 8 that a great persecution breaks out against the church, and it's almost like God is saying okay, if you're not going to go on your own, I'm going to give you a little nudge. And the whole church was scattered, and when they scattered, they went and taught and preached wherever they went and told about this good news of Jesus Christ giving his life for your sins so that you could live in a relationship with God. And all around the Mediterranean, different cities, all around churches sprung up and new believers gathered together. What happened back in Jerusalem, though, was the church was under such persecution and went through such a difficult time that they were destitute, and so what Paul did was he contacted all these other churches all around the Mediterranean. He said listen, we need to take up a collection for the church in Jerusalem, because our brothers back there are suffering and we need to help them out Now. There was no Venmo or PayPal or Zelle at the time, so this all had to kind of be a planned out deal. And so he wrote them and he visited them and told them to start making this collection. So what he's talking about now is this collection. This all kind of started like a year ago and they're supposed to have been collecting and Paul said hey, I'm coming, and when I come I want to make sure that you fulfill the promise. You made a decision. Now you got to follow through on it. So here's how we instructed them.

Speaker 1: 11:36

He says each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. Now, that word decided in your heart, okay, the Greek word is actually prosareo, which really impresses you, doesn't it? Bible college will do that. You just call it these Greek words. What it literally means is forethought Pros. That preposition pros means forward, or ahead of time, or towards. And so he says listen, you do this ahead of time. You decide it in your heart. It should be something that you think about, that, you pray about, that you deliberately consider and then make a decision.

Speaker 1: 12:14

So you should give what you've decided in your heart. And he says also, not reluctantly or under compulsion. In other words, we're not going to twist your arm, we're not going to lay a guilt trip on you. This has to be between you and God, because he said God loves a cheerful giver. And that's the idea. It's about changing your attitude. It's about changing your mind, your frame of mind.

Speaker 1: 12:41

By the way, the word cheerful there you want another great Greek word, this one, you'll remember. The Greek word for cheerful there is hilarios, which translates into our English word hilarious. You ought to be laughing when you write out your tithe check. You ought to just having a great old time when you make that donation, because that's the kind of giving God wants. By the way, do you know that misery and miser have the same root word as well? He says if you want to live a cheerful life, an abundant life, live a generous life.

Speaker 1: 13:16

So here I'm going to give you some very practical, helpful steps in that whole decision-making process. He says you ought to give this some forethought, you ought to be deliberate and considerate about that. So here's some very practical steps. The first is draw your line at enough For yourself. Draw a line that says enough, I have enough, I am living comfortably and most of us in this room would say I'm living pretty comfortably, especially compared to most of the rest of the world. When you draw your line at enough. What happens is, every time you get a promotion or a raise, you don't just automatically raise your standard of living. You say, no, I have enough. So anything that comes in extra, yeah, you can enjoy some of that, but kind of draw your line so you can even say I have enough. Because even now, whatever you're making, whatever raise you may or may not, promotion you may or may not give, you have enough. In fact, my guess is you have more than enough. If you go home today, drive home, pull your car into your garage if there's room in your garage but pull your car into the garage and before you get out of your car, just sit in the car and look around your garage and I bet every one of us in this room could identify at least 10 items that you have not touched for a year. But they're sitting in a box somewhere in your garage because you have more than enough.

Speaker 1: 14:51

Men, how many t-shirts do you have? I'll be honest, I have two drawers in my dresser that are just t-shirts, because I have t-shirts for when I go sailing. I have t-shirts from when I work in the yard, I have t-shirts from the places that I've been that are special to me and I've got two drawers and my wife says you don't get to buy one more t-shirt because you get every. The rule is now I can't get another t-shirt unless I'm willing to give up one, which makes it really hard. Women, men, this is where you get back. How many pairs of shoes do you have? See, I don't know what it is about women in shoes and men in T-shirts, but there just seems to be a thing.

Speaker 1: 15:39

Now, I'm not talking about this to give you a guilt trip. What I want you to do is understand gratitude, because we all have enough. So draw your line and it's going to be different for every one of us and it might change but kind of draw a line in which you can say you know, this is enough, I don't really need more. There's another idea Audit your household budget, or make a household budget and just see where your money goes and maybe take a look at where am I overspending, where could I cut back? Where could I use that? Maybe for the kingdom of God's work. And then here's another one, a very practical one. I talked about this a couple weeks ago Set a giving goal, because it's about being deliberate and considerate and having forethought, so set a giving goal.

Speaker 1: 16:37

Most of you already did your taxes. You maybe already got your tax return, but when you did your taxes there was a line item for charitable contributions. I'd like you to go home, look at that number and say, okay, how much more could I give? Because it's about changing your lives. It's a deliberate decision. Living generously is a choice. Secondly, living generously will require consistency, because you can get all excited about this and be very enthusiastic about now. I want to live a generous life. But all that enthusiasm, whatever moves you in that direction, it eventually wears off, and that's true of just about anything.

Speaker 1: 17:19

Show of hands this morning. How many of you have at least one unfinished project back at home? Yeah, when we first started Northgate once, we moved out of our living room and I'll tell the story a little bit later, but we moved into the old post office building downtown which now houses Benicia. Fellowship now meets there and we did all the work on this place and in one of the bathrooms I think it was in the men's room one of the guys on our original team he was a building contractor and he had one of those medicine cabinet mirrors that are meant to sit in the wall and then you open it up and you can keep your medicine there, but it's just a mirror on the surface. Well, we needed a mirror in the men's bathroom and he had one of these in his shop, so we brought it, we hung it up there and we didn't recess it in the wall because we didn't want to put medicine in there, but we needed a mirror. Put it up there and then Pastor Megan wrote a little note, a little sign that says this is not a permanent fixture, and put it on the mirror. I'm willing to bet, if you go back and visit that church, that is still hanging on that wall back there the sign might have been taken off.

Speaker 1: 18:30

But we get all enthused about projects, we get all enthused about things, but the enthusiasm wears off, and this is kind of what happened with the Corinthians. This is what he writes about. He says I know your eagerness to help and I've been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year in Achaia you were ready to give and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. But I'm sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter may not prove hollow, but that you may be ready as you said you would be. Why? Because we get all enthused about it, but enthusiasm wears off and it takes some consistency. This had actually started a year previously. This is what he wrote in 2 Corinthians 8. He says last year you were the first not only to give, but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, because when your enthusiasm wanes, you need to determine to continue on.

Speaker 1: 19:40

So another idea, some practical ideas here Create new habits that will reinforce a generous lifestyle, because it takes that consistency. Paul gave them instructions. By the way, in his first letter he says this he says on the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up so that when I come, no collections will have to be made. He says do this regularly. You know you can make a big pledge, you can get all excited about something, but just it's the consistency in it. So he says do it each week so that when I come to collect it next year to make sure that it's ready. So again, here's the idea Review your monthly budget.

Speaker 1: 20:32

Set aside a sum in keeping with your income, he says. Saving it up so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Review your monthly budget. Do you know? I read this not too long ago. The average American has $33 a month worth of unused subscriptions If it's a streaming TV subscription or an app subscription and the average American has $33 worth each month of money they're just throwing away and not even using. Do you know? $33 a month could sponsor an orphan in Uganda and provide them with schooling and food and clothes, just by eliminating an unused thing. So do that. Cancel those unused subscriptions.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Here's a habit I read about. Jeff Schoenbacher wrote a book called More or Less and he tells a story of a woman named Ashley and she had kind of decided that she was getting too wrapped up in all of her clothes and she's had this full closet, and so she decided she was going to change her habits and she did an experiment. She said she would not wear the same outfit until she had worn every single outfit in her closet and she thought well, probably in a month I'll go through all of my clothes and then I'll go again. She went a whole year before she wore the last outfit, she even wore an old bridesmaid's dress because it was in her closet and she had committed to this. You don't have to go to that extreme, but just creating some new habits.

Speaker 1: 22:22

Here's another one Choose not to upgrade. You know, like when you go to McDonald's and they say, would you like to supersize that Practice this term, say it with me. No, thank you. Once more, no, thank you. Yeah, when the new iPhone comes out and yours is only a 15, and that's 16, and now it's coming out the 17. Just say no, thank you. See, you get all the. Anything you do, any purchase you make, somebody is going to try to upsell you. You know, do you want to add this? Do you want to do that? Here's another x-ray, and just a little bit more, and just say no, thank you, because you don't really need any of that stuff. And here's the last idea Levering generously.

Speaker 1: 23:19

When you live generously, you make room for God. And here's where I'm going to tell some stories. And here's where I'm going to tell some stories. I'm going to try it without choking up, which obviously is not going to work, but when you go all in, when you determine those five core values that we say we have as a church. When you go all in with all of it, when you go all in with living generously, what happens is it stretches your faith.

Speaker 1: 23:56

Paul wrote God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Now I'm gonna read that again and where I pause, I want you to fill in the blank. Okay, god is able to bless you abundantly so that, in at having you will abound in all things all times. Having all that you need, you could abound in every good work. See, when you go and stretch beyond yourself, when you go all in, god starts to do stuff. So we got to a point where we had actually got people coming to my living room to church. We grew to like 35 people, which was bigger than my living room could handle anymore.

Speaker 1: 24:57

So we started looking for a place that we could meet, and we found that the old post office a new post office had been built. The old post office had been sitting empty, and so what we did was that's the wrong pictures, back it up. Well, that's fine, leave them up there. We got a lease on the old post office building, and so what we did was every Saturday we had work days and it was just us all volunteers, and so we had worked. We had framed Because the place was a mess, and so we did some dry work. We got some money from the owners so we could buy materials to put up walls and build a little platform and whatever it took. So we did all of this work. We were working like every Saturday for months. I mean, we started in. I think we started like in October and November and December and January, and we were dead tired and we had everything done. The walls had been painted, we had bought the carpet, but we were out of money.

Speaker 1: 26:05

And when I went to pick up the carpet carpet and some of you have heard this story, if you haven't been here in the last eight years, you haven't heard this story went to pick up the carpet and the guy selling it to us he said well, who's going to lay the carpet for you? And I said well, you know my brother-in-law. He laid carpet once. I think he's going to do. He said wait, wait, don't do that. I'll give you the name of one of our installers. He does side jobs on the side. He can probably do it for you for less, because he knew we were a church.

Speaker 1: 26:31

So we had one of our last work days and it was on a Saturday and we had worked all day long and then he was going to come meet me like five or six o'clock that evening, so everybody had gone home and I'm there, I meet him. He comes, he measures everything up and does his figurine square footage, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and he says I'll do it for $2,000, I think it was maybe $1,800, but right around the $2,000 range. So I said well, I was expecting a little bit less than that. Do you think you know, like we, as a lot of volunteers, we can do all the grunt work and move the carpet around and all we can do is the seams and the tucking and the corners and all that kind of stuff? Could you give us a break, because we're a church and we're just really trying to get started and everything's ready to go, but we just need to get this carpet laid, okay, okay, I'll tell you what I'll do the whole thing. If you provide all the volunteers, I'll do it for you for a thousand bucks Whoa, like he came down like 50%. But we didn't have a thousand bucks either.

Speaker 1: 27:42

So I said, I said, well, I'll tell you what, let me call our treasurer and talk with her and see what we've got and I'll get back to you. And I knew, I knew what our budget was like. We were done, you know. But I thought okay. So I called the treasurer, Becky Cosmetis, and I'm thinking, okay, what's been our average giving? How long would it take for us to save up $1,000 so we could pay to get the carpet laid? And so I call her. We had installed the phone there. So I called her up and I asked her that question. She goes I don't know, I'll have to go back and look over the last couple of months. I said, ok, well, I'm on my way home, I'll call you when I get home. So hang up.

Speaker 1: 28:22

I leave the old post office that we were trying to turn into a church, went to the new post office where we had a post office box, and picked up the mail from the post office box. And I'm sitting in my car and there's this envelope. The return address is Mrs Jane Grant, 4700 Riverview Road, atlanta, georgia. I don't know Jane Grant. In fact I don't know anybody who lives in Atlanta, georgia. That's weird. So I opened it up and the letter says Dear Ken, you don't know me, but my good friend Lynn Knight and I had breakfast together this morning here in Atlanta. As she was passing through, she was telling me about a church that you have started in Benicia. I felt led to send a donation to your church to use wherever it is needed. And inside the fold was a check for $1,000.

Speaker 1: 29:56

And I almost got through that without choking up, because when you go all in and you come to the end of your resources, that's where God begins to do his work. Paul said it this way Now, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. Now notice what he says. He provides seed to the sower and bread for food that he's going to take care of your bread for food. But also understand he's also giving you some to sow and he is able to increase your store of seed and will enlarge your harvest of righteousness. He provides for your needs and what you can now use for his kingdom. He says you will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And, through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. You will be enriched in every way, so that those are two really important words. You will be enriched in every way so that you can buy anything you want. You will be enriched in every way so that you can buy that brand new. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.

Speaker 1: 31:22

Tell you another story. My wife and I have for the last almost 20 years, been supporting orphans in Uganda. That's our family. Actually, that's only part of it, because that's currently three, six, seven, eight Okay, so it's eight now, because we've had others that we've gone all the way through the program and some have dropped out. Over the years we've probably sponsored close to 15, right? So those kids are all growing up.

Speaker 1: 31:57

The one in green, that's Becca. We've sponsored her since she was five years old. She is now just wrapping up. She's going to be graduating in November from university. Now what happens is $31 a month sponsors a child, but as they grow up, the needs get more. Now basic sponsorship is still $31. But now they're at an age where they're ready for college or secondary school and that's going to be boarding school and that's going to cost a little bit more. So last year we got a call from Hope for Kids and they said you know there's four of your kids in the program that are really ready to advance and you know we're giving you a little bit of a heads up on it because for all of them to advance and if you want to continue to support them, you know it's going to increase. It was going to increase like $500 a month, which is like a really big shock to our budget. Right, we don't have an extra $500 a month. So they said now we know that's a lot and one of the things that we've encouraged people to do is maybe you can get a co-sponsor that will you know kind of supplement and help them to be able to do it.

Speaker 1: 33:06

So we're wrestling with this because we just didn't feel right about asking somebody else to help sponsor our kids' education kind of a thing. But we knew we really didn't have the money and the budget and it was just like, what are we going to do? And we came to church that Sunday morning. Pastor Larry was talking about this whole idea of listening to God's voice and responding to what he wants you to do. And I turned to Betty and I whispered in her ear. I says I guess we're going to find $500 to sponsor these kids, aren't we? And she said I think we are. And so we called Hope for Kids and we just said you know what, we'll figure it out, just go ahead. So we did.

Speaker 1: 33:46

That week we got an unexpected check out of the blue. We didn't even know why we were getting it, but we got a check for like $450. And then the following month we got another check out of the blue and it was like $300 or something like that. And it was like God was saying okay, I'll bring your life slowly. I'll kind of upfront it for the first month and I'll support it for the second month, and that'll give you a couple of months to kind of rearrange your budget so you can do that. And now we are doing that because we decided this is what God's calling us to do. We didn't have the resources at the time, but he gave us the ability to be able to do it. When you make room for God and trust him, he brings the results.

Speaker 1: 34:32

The property that we are meeting on, the building that we are meeting in today another one of those stories. So we outgrew the post office and we moved in. We rented the warehouse on the other side of the freeway and the church continued to grow and more and more unchurched people started becoming followers of Jesus Christ, which was our goal, and we were doing four services down in the old warehouse building. We did a Saturday night and three Sunday mornings and I was exhausted and we were looking for property because we'd outgrown the warehouse now and Dave McMurtry, who was vice chair of the board at the time they have since moved to North Carolina, Dave and Kendra, but they were a big, big part of Northgate all along and he at the time was working for a company called IT Corporation which owns like acres all around us here, and so he went to the president.

Speaker 1: 35:32

He was the vice president with the corporation. He went to the president and he said listen, the church that I'm a part of we are looking to buy some property and we just need a place, have a home to call our own and we need about 20 acres. I know IT owns all of this property all around here. Do you think we could carve out like 20 acres that the church could buy. And the president of the corporation said well, couldn't we just make that a donation? And Dave went yeah, I guess we could. So he said well, let's do our due diligence. What do you think the property is worth? He says I don't know. It's barren land. It's zoned ag 20, you 20, maybe a couple hundred thousand. He says, okay, well, do all the research, figure it all out and let's see if we get this done. Well, dave did the research and it turned out that this property was going to be worth over a million dollars. And again, we did not have a million dollars.

Speaker 1: 36:33

And so Dave calls me and he says well, I'm going back to DC. We got corporate meetings back there. I'm hoping to talk to the president. He said but I don't know. He said I told him it was going to be worth maybe $200,000. It's going to be like five times that. I don't know if it's still going to go for this deal. So I said, okay, oh, and we hadn't told anybody, it was just Dave and me and our church board. And I just called the church board. I just said, okay, you guys got to be praying. Dave's going back next week. He's going to have these meetings, hoping to talk to the president back there. Ba, ba, ba, ba ba. So we're just praying. We couldn't say a word to anybody. It was just me, dave and our church board praying.

Speaker 1: 37:15

And Dave calls me from DC I think it was a Thursday night. He says are you sitting down? I said should I? He said you might want to. He said it turns out I met with him. We were going out to dinner. We happened to be in the same car and he turned to me and he said so what's the deal with this church property deal? And they said well, funny, I was going to ask you about that and kind of give you a report while I was back here. He said it came in a little bit higher than I thought. And he said well, okay, so what was it? And he told them what the amount was. I can't even remember what the exact amount was. It was over a million. And the president of the corporation said well, okay, let's get it done. So the property that we are meeting on today and this was one of our first gatherings just we did a dedication of the property, we paid $1. And I could tell you story after story after story of all of this.

Speaker 1: 38:19

But here's the thing when you live generously, you make room for God, and when you make room for God, he shows up. Paul wrote because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. You are sitting here this morning because a small group of 12 adults, five kids and one infant went all in, and you are sitting in this room particularly because, about 10 years, 12 years later, another group of people of about 400 went all in. Group of people of about 400 went all in. And when Paul writes, because of service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God. You are here to praise God. Thank God for those 12 people 35 years ago who went all in, for those 400 people 10 years ago who went all in. And now it's your turn and I don't say your turn, I say our turn, because I'm still a part of it To go all in, one of the things we've said.

Speaker 1: 39:52

In everything that we've done here, we are always paving the way for those who are not yet here, and that's why we do it. It's not about buildings, it's not about property. It's about people and helping unchurched people become a whole heart of followers of Jesus Christ. And you don't get to tell post office carpet stories and property donation stories unless you're willing to take those all-in type of steps of faith. So I want to encourage you, wherever you're at and whatever it looks like for you and it's going to look different for every one of us but whatever it is that God wants to do through you, don't hold back, go all in. It will change your life and it will change the life of the people you love and in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace that God has given you.

Speaker 1: 40:59

Two very practical things you can do. On your way out, you'll see one of these commitment cards all in and we'll explain next week a little bit more about what this is going to look like. But it's just saying, in terms of generous living, I'm all in and here's my commitment Not just a burst of enthusiasm, but a regular commitment. The other thing you can do is we offer it's a weekend retreat. It's a Friday night. Saturday you get to go home and sleep in your own bed. You don't have to camp out here. It's called Journey of Generosity.

Speaker 1: 41:31

My wife and I went through this a couple years ago, changed our lives and we'd always felt like we were being generous people, but it just changed our whole perspective. And there's no ask, there is no fee required in this. It is something that we are offering freely to the church. If you want to join in a journey of generosity and see what that looks like and how it's impacted other people and what it could look like for you, I would encourage you to sign up for this at the Northgate U table. You can use the QR code on the seat back in front of you and sign up for that.

Speaker 1: 42:07

I would hope that you would make those decisions so that someday, someday, you're going to be able to tell the story of your life where you went all in and you made room for God. God showed up and you'll tell the story without cracking up. Let's pray God. Thank you for your faithfulness. Let's pray God. Thank you for your faithfulness. You have done so much for us as individuals and as a church, and you did it because you called us to live an abundant life, and sometimes the hard part is seeing the abundance when it's asking so much of us, but everything that you do is good, and your grace extends in us and through us to others, and may we be faithful to that In Jesus' name amen.