| “The amount of your giving may not be large in comparison to someone else’s gift, but if your heart is generous, and your gift is sacrificial, God is pleased.” —Rod Rogers |
December 12, 2024 In Acts 20 the apostle Paul addresses the elders at Ephesus before departing for Jerusalem. At the end of his address he quotes the words of Jesus saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This is only possible because both Paul and we serve a radically generous God who has so bountifully lavished goodness upon his people. Our relationship with money then, and our subsequent generosity, is much more about our heart affections than anything else. Generosity comes from love of a particular thing and or love for a particular person(s). The former is such that you want to share a thing that you love enjoy or benefit from. The latter is wanting to bless or enrich those whom you care for. If we truly love something, we want help other people experience the thing that we love as well. And if we truly love other people, we want them to be blessed regardless of circumstances. Thus if we want to celebrate and cultivate generosity as a church we need to look no further than the greatest commandment: to love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and strength, and then to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we grow in love for God and for our neighbors (in this context neighbors meaning church family) then we will increasingly cultivate a spirit of generosity — because God was so generous to us in Christ, and our neighbors are the ones with whom we share our lives and the very generosity of God himself. We celebrate this by living in light of God’s great generosity — by giving back to him a portion of that which he has lavished upon us. And we do that to the glory of his name, but also for the building up of our neighbors/church family. Maybe think about it like Jesus and the sinful woman: she loved much because she was forgiven much. The more you realize how much you and your church family have been forgiven, you will grow in your affection for your savior. And the more you realize how worthy God is to worship and serve, the more you will want to love and bless your neighbors.  Prayer Schedule For the week of December 15, I’m just offering a series of texts to allow you to mediate on the generosity of God and subsequent response of his people. Read these. Chew on these. Pray through these. Ask that God would grow your love for him and for your neighbors. And that your treasure would be where your heart is. Exodus 35:4-36:7 Psalm 37:1-40 Proverbs 19:17 Acts 2:42-47 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 Ephesians 1:3-14 Mark 10:17-31 Romans 12:3-8 Thankful for all my brothers and sisters in Christ, and what our God is doing in and among you! In Christ, John D For those who like a bigger picture here are the remaining 2 weeks at a glance: December 22, 2024 — celebrating and cultivating sacrifice December 29, 2024 — giving up what we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose |
Announcements
| —Christmas Party for dudes, dads, and kids December 13 Where: The Downs House When: 6-8pm, Friday Dec. 13th What: Dinner, fellowship, Christmas Movie, and packing gift bags for College kids Food will be provided. Fun will be had. —Lessons and Carols December 22 We will be celebrating an evening of Lessons and Carols at Rock Family Church on Sunday, December 22 from 5:30-7:30. There will be Scripture readings, Christmas hymn singing, and wonderful fellowship. We would ask everyone to bring some kind of appetizer or dessert to share. Please contact Tina if you have any questions! —Service Opportunity at Compass Women’s Center The Director of Compass Women’s center asked if Mercy Church would possibly be willing to help them move some equipment from Pineview drive to their place on Donn Knots blvd. We are helping them on Tuesday, December 17 in the evening. Please let Nathan Harlan (304-276-3419) know if you are able to help. —Songs for Sunday Here’s what we’re singing this Sunday if you’d like to familiarize yourself with tunes + lyrics! How Great Thou Art Psalm 1 (How Sweet And Awesome Is The Place Tune) Who Is This? What Child Is This? Jesus I My Cross Have Taken |
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