Follow God's Lead | Tandem | Dave Stone transcript

A few years ago, I had a biking accident. Thank Huffy, not Harley. All right. My arms probably gave that away, though. Uh, I was with some guys on a 10-mi trip, which was farther than I usually ride. Uh, we were nearly seven miles into the ride when it happened, and the impact and the fall knocked me out momentarily, and I was pretty dazed. We later found out that I had broken two ribs. And since we were out in the middle of nowhere, uh, a car could not get to where I was.

And so I had to pedal back the remaining three miles back to where my car was parked and it was very painful. Let me just ask a question of all of our campuses. Just raise your hand if you have ever had a broken rib. Just raise your hand if you can. All right? Uh if if you've had one, you know that it only hurts when you laugh, cough, sneeze, or breathe. All right? and you can't sleep because whether you know it or not, you move in your sleep.

So after two sleepless nights, I called my doctor up and I said, "Hey, you got to give me something, man." I said, "I I can't sleep." He said, "Well, let me ask you a question." He said, "Are you trying to sleep laying down?" I said, "Well, that's how I was taught." He said, "No, no, no, no." He said, "Man, if you got broken ribs," he said, "for the first seven days to 10 days, you can't sleep laying down." He said, "You have to sleep sitting upright in a chair." I said, "That that's impossible.

Nobody can sleep sitting upright in a chair." But the next weekend, I was in the middle of my sermon and I looked out. It's possible. In fact, some of you are pretty good at it, I might add. Although it's embarrassing, let let me tell you how I crashed. I I was riding second following the leader. The three of us were evenly spaced about six seconds apart. I knew the leader's pace and I was tired. And so I just kind of locked in on that speed.

And the longer we rode, the more tired I became. And I'm I'm wondering when the leader is going to stop so that we can get a drink of water. And so I'm just looking down, pedaling, and I'm just looking at my legs going up and down. And I did that for probably 12 seconds without looking up. And of course, that's when he decided to stop and to get a water break. And so I hit him directly at about 20 miles per hour. And I landed on my rib cage and I learned something that day.

When you take your eyes off of the leader, the odds are good that there's a crash in your future. We're on this journey too in this experience that we call life. Hebrews 12 verse two tells us that we are to be fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith. And we're looking to our leader and following where he leads. And today we embark upon a two-eek series where we're going to use a bike analogy, but it's it's not going to be just any bike.

We're going to be drawing some parallels with stewardship in a tandem bike. And tandem bikes are are quite interesting. They they go 30% faster than a single rider. The average is 7 miles per hour faster. And the lead rider reduces the wind resistance for the rider in the back by 55%. And today what we're going to do is we're going to invite God to lead the ride. And we'll discover that when we put God first in our finances and invite him into the journey, he is prepared to take us farther and faster than we could ever go on our own.

And we need this series for several reasons. We need this series because debt can own us. Worry can consume us. And more money rarely fixes what we thought that it would fix. What I'm saying is that the world's way isn't working. your co-workers and your neighbors face the same challenges that you do. We need to look elsewhere for for the answers and and this is the book that we go to. So, let me share three observations today.

First of all, riding alone will wear you out. A solo cyclist on a flat road faces roughly 70 to 80% of their energy expenditure being consumed by wind resistance alone. All that effort and most of it just fighting the air. Do you do you know what you get when you fight the the wind? Get winded. That's a picture of life without God in the front seat. Solomon said that our quest for money is like a chasing after the wind.

And you are working at full capacity. And most of your effort is trying not to be stopped by things that you were never designed to be fighting alone. And the exhaustion that you feel financially is not a sign that you're weak. Sometimes it's due to medical debt or downsizing at work or some disability. But sometimes that exhaustion is caused from riding in the wrong seat. You were not built to carry the weight of your own provision.

And according to God's plan, that burden was never yours to bear alone. And when it comes to finances, riding in the first seat on a tandem bike sounds like power and control. And yet, it's more stressful and painful because of the wind. God designed it that way on purpose because you're not supposed to ride first. Deuteronomy 8:17. You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." Ashley mentioned this passage last week.

Moses is not warning against hard work. He is warning against misidentifying the source of the energy behind the work, being prideful over what God has done. It goes on to say in verse 18, but remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. God is always the one actively handing you the strength. Your effort is real, but the fuel is his. You can't do this alone. And you can tell when you're peding pedalling by yourself.

It's why your heart beats faster when a credit card bill shows up on the kitchen counter. It's why you feel the emotional impact when co-workers invite you to lunch, but because you can't afford it, you just say no. It's why your sleep is low. Your sleep score is so low because you lie awake wondering how everyone else is able to provide but but you can't. Secondly, God's word makes a suggestion for us and that is that writing behind will move you forward.

I know that seems countercultural, but Jesus has all these upside down principles in his teaching. The first will be last, the last will be first. Whoever wants to be great must be the servant of all. You're more blessed if you give than if you receive. And the same is true with a with a bike. Think about professional cycling teams. When teams race, the lead rider goes out front. He absorbs roughly 30 to 40% more wind resistance than everyone behind.

And the lead rider takes the full force of what is coming so that those behind on his team can go faster with less effort and strain on them. That's why they take turns being in the lead. Think of Matthew 11:es 28-30 where Jesus our lead writer says, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and find your rest in me." At every campus uh this weekend uh we're kicking off FPU, Financial Peace University. And if this is something that you're struggling with, I just want to encourage you to to check that out, to go to the app and check it out.

It it it will be a gamecher for you. When you put God first in your finances, he doesn't just coach from a distance. He gets in front and takes the full win so you can move forward with less resistance. The tithe is more than what you give to God. It's how he gets in front of you and you get behind him. And sitting in that first seat does not just describe a a position. It describes a posture. When God is first, everything else finds its proper place.

You're not giving 10% to God. You're actually surrendering 100% to his leadership. You're probably familiar with the Old Testament passage in Malachi chapter 3, uh, verses 8 and 10 where it says, "Will a a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me." But you ask, "How are we robbing you, God?" "In tithes and offerings. bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this only place in all of scripture where God ever says to test him on anything.

He says, "Test me on this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." Floodgates of heaven, that pictures the sky opening and rain pouring down. I mean, in in Arizona, we know what rain means. It it means life. And a downpour of of rain was relief. Back in that culture, in an agrarian culture, it meant survival.

In Malachi, God says, "I will rain down my blessings." Now, you need to know something. I don't believe in a health and wealth theology, but I believe that that downpour could take different forms. floodgates of peace, of joy, of forgiveness, of vision, of mission, of purpose, or perhaps resources. But rather than listening to a preacher's encouragement on this topic, I want you to hear from some members of CCV from a variety of campuses.

Watch this with me. >> Growing up, I grew up in a Christian church. Um, didn't really talk about tithing much. I know that my parents did, but wasn't like a big part of what we talked about. and then met my now husband and he was really wanting to push for tithing and I just kept holding back cuz at the time we were both teachers so we weren't making a ton of money and we were dealing with some debt as well but I kept pushing back and I was holding on so close fifted to that and I just didn't want to went to a message about tithing here and it was one of those where he just spoke directly to my soul like he pierced my soul he just said you know this is the one place where God says to challenge you and so I said, "Okay." >> Yeah.

Like lethargic, stagnant. I think like my prayer life was kind of, you know, just going through the motions. We weren't part of a group. We weren't serving. You know, everything else was getting my attention rather than rather than God. Ashley gave a message on tithing at the end of the year, but that just hit different. I've heard a bunch of messages on tithing, man. But when he hit you with the uh you know, tipping, you know, is God getting your first fruits?

I uh I had some conviction. And I remember being in the car. I looked at my wife. I said, "Hey, I want to I want to do this. I want to go I want to go all in. Be obedient." My wife responded in such a great way. Uh she's always trusted uh me with with with the finances. And now by making that decision, it's like we trust him with our finances, which has been great. >> It was 2 years ago. I remember that sermon about tithing.

I remember like him having the heart and had the chain and he was like, "Where your money goes, your heart goes." And it just really hit me. I remember going home and at this time I had a job that I was miserable in, crying every single day, Lord, why can't you why take me out of this and I'm still tithing but not the full amount. And after that sermon, I remember going home and the Lord was speaking to me so loud and clear and he was like, "Daughter, why would I trust you with more when you are trusting me with so little?" And I just remember going to my husband and we got to start being obedient and you know and he was like let's do it.

And I mean and that that was a very scary concept at the time. >> I uh went through a bitter divorce and immediately went into a dark place all day and all night just drinking and didn't care about myself. Didn't care about anything that was going on in my life. years later, I ended up meeting Christine in a bar and uh soon we started dating. It was turmoil in our relationship. One morning after a really bad blackout and I sat there and I knew today would be the day that I can't drink anymore.

That Sunday, Christine was going to be going to a church called CCB. And I went with her. After it was over, I told Christine, "Hey, I love this church. I want to give God my heart. I'm all in." I was desperate. I was looking for anything, anything that could help me stop drinking. So, I had to make a commitment to God. And part of my commitment was, "If I don't drink, I will give you 10% and you you stop me from drinking." I'm not going to lie, it was tough saying that we're going to commit 10% of our income because that's a huge amount no matter how much your income is.

We committed to it. I wanted to support Michael and that's what we both decided together. >> I just felt a peace about our finances and I wasn't worried about it anymore because I had fully surrendered everything to God. Finally giving that up to him has just made my life more peaceful because that was the one area that I was being real stubborn on. And I would have never thought like if you told me, "Hey, Ty, if you needed one thing to really jumpstart your faith, you know, to run back to him, it would be tithing." But, uh, it was, man.

It's led us to to serving, uh, joining a group, it's been amazing. And when I look back on where we're at now in our in our walk and our relationship with Jesus, tithing was that step. >> Things started looking better. I started feeling a sense of peace. And >> I saw real change in him and his commitment to Jesus. And >> as long as we stay with our foundation, which is Jesus, it's going to be okay. >> We started tithing like that next week and life has been completely different ever since then. >> Yeah.

I I really appreciate when people allow us that peak into such a personal journey and they share their hearts with us. I have one brother, his name's Jeff. He's two years older than me. When we were growing up, we both loved riding bikes. And we were both strong willed and as we got older, our bike rides sometimes turned into battles over who was going to be in charge and who was going to dictate and determine the direction.

I remember one spring our our family went on vacation to a place called Williamsburg, Virginia. And it's a place that is historic and it has a lot of uh it's a restored village from back in the 1700s. And so our parents were taking us through all these different shops. And I mean I'm telling you what, after about 12 shops, I was bored out of my gourd. And it would just kept going on and on and uh there's only so many ways you can make a candle.

All right. But we came to this area where it had bike rental. And it wasn't any old bike. It was it was tandem bikes and they were built for two and we talked our parents into it and we got to rent it for two hours. My brother immediately went to the front seat and took that seat and I kind of felt like, you know, this is tough on me because I I like to be in charge. He likes to be in charge. But we headed out and if you're in the front, you're in charge of steering.

You can't steer from the back. In fact, if you try to steer, you throw things off. He's he's the only one who can move the handlebars. And so, you have to stick with him and you have to go with that direction. Otherwise, you lose your balance. And he started taking us places and he would survey the area and look around and see what it is that we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. He'd dart us around where people were.

He'd see something in the distance. And if you're sitting in the front seat, you can do that because you can see much better, of course, than the person in the back seat. And sometimes I would try to lean up and say to him, "Hey, you know what? Why don't we go over here?" And he would just smile and look back at me and say, "Keep peddling. Keep pedaling." But there was something really cool that happened because we had a blast.

We had so much fun. And although I was following, there was an incredible sense of freedom that came from working together and trusting the one that was up front. And the same is true when we put God in the driver's seat and we take the back seat. Tithing is not primarily about money. It's about who you allow to steer. And we follow his lead and we keep peddling. So the next time you doubt or question the direction that the spirit is taking you, listen carefully.

And you may just hear that still small voice saying, "Keep peddling. Keep pedaling. I've got this." God does not just want to help you survive financially. He wants to take you somewhere that you could never ride on your own. And surrendering control over God to God of your finances doesn't restrict your life. It actually leads into greater freedom. Let me say something to those of you who are over the age of 60. And I feel qualified since uh last month, couple months ago, I turned 65.

And when I was a I know. Yeah. Thanks for rubbing it in. I appreciate that. Oh, is he okay? Do we need to get him a chair? You know, I know what you're thinking. When I was a teen, I thought someone who was 65 was elderly. I thought they were someone who had cheated death somehow, right? But with each passing decade, my views have evolved. And let me just tell you that uh for those of you who are younger, hey, aging really isn't a lot of fun.

All right? Couple of months ago, I went to bed. I was feeling fine. Slept all night. Got up at 7:30 the next morning. I got out of bed and I realized that I had pulled my calf muscle while I was asleep. I'm thinking, how do you do that? that I dreamed that I had run a marathon. And so I'm saying to Beth, I'm saying, "How do you pull a muscle while you're asleep?" And she said, "You probably pulled it on one of your trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night." Thanks, buttercup.

Right. But seriously, for those of us in our 60s and 70s and beyond, we've worked hard for decades. We've tried to be wise and and prudent. We've saved. And part of us wants to enjoy that nest egg to spend, to splurge, to to bless others. And yet there's another part of us that says, "Hey, be cautious. Make certain that there's enough left. I mean, there's inflation. Costs are going up. We want to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

We don't want to be a burden to the kids. I get it. I mean, I truly do. But I think that many of us can er on the side of being too safe rather than being visionary. Of being too conservative rather than being generous. There are three seasons of life. Learning, earning, and returning. And while every season should be marked by generosity and returning, I do believe that the 60s and beyond give us a unique opportunity to show God that our security is in him and not in our savings.

And Satan wants us to hold tightly, to hoard fearfully, to give sparingly. But God calls us to trust him completely. Here's why the tandem bike analogy is is so helpful. You you don't have to steer. You you just have to keep pedaling. Here's the final observation. Riding together will take you farther. Proverbs 3:es 9 and 10. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops. Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

To honor God with your finances means that you are assigning him the full weight of ownership over everything that you have. Here's what I'm saying. When God is in the front seat and you're in the back, your ceiling becomes his floor. Because he has unlimited resources and blessings, he can do it any way he wants to. He might stretch the life of your appliances. He might keep your car out of the shop. He may bring a special someone into your life.

He might put your teen into a great group at CCV and give them a couple of strong Christian friendships. That downpour of rain can take a variety of forms. Tithing is not a tax. It's not a tip. Giving the first 10% of your income is not a bill that you pay to the church. Tithing is a declaration of saying, "God, I trust you. completely. National surveys would say that the percentage of Bible believing Christians who tithe is staggeringly low.

There's a disconnect between the scriptural expectation and the reality of many Christians in 2026. So, let me be very candid and speak to you from my 50-year walk with Christ. And I realize that statistically some 90% of you who are listening to my voice don't give 10% of your income to the Lord. And I just want to help you move in this area. Not simply tithing, but just to have a a life of generosity because I'm telling you, there is profound joy and fun that can come with it.

And so I say this next line with with fear and trembling. I don't think tithing is generosity. I just don't. I think it's a good start toward it, but it's not generosity. And I realize that many of you are probably thinking, "Oh, well, wait a second, Dave. I mean, I just was starting to come around from what you're saying and thinking, yeah, I think I'm going to start tithing." and now you're going to raise the bar on me again.

You know, some Christians are always looking for a loophole. And sometimes they'll say, "Well, you know what, uh, Dave, uh, tithing was an Old Testament principle." Well, you can't say that. In the New Testament, in Matthew 23:23, Jesus had the perfect opportunity with the religious leaders to reject the concept of the tithe. And yet, he didn't. He doubled down on it and he affirmed it. But let's just let's just set that scripture aside for a moment and let's come at this from a completely different direction.

Let's just come at it from from logic. I want you to imagine that God has blessed you and your spouse with a a 2-year-old. And uh man, life is good. And you and your spouse, you go out on dates every once in a while. you have a a usual babysitter who who watches that 2-year-old and you pay that babysitter, let's say, 18 bucks an hour and occasionally you'll go out and you just have a blast. You go to dinner in a movie, you come back and then you pay her that usual rate for the time that that you were gone, that she watched that that little guy.

But let's change the scenario and let's say that the next year you all are blessed with twins. And now when you go on a date night, there are three under the age of three. That sounds like a fun date night, doesn't it? To have that freedom and to get away from that and to entrust to that babysitter those three children. When you come back home and you pay her, are you going to pay her more or less? Don't answer that question.

Just just think about it. I mean the situation has altered, the consequences are changed. It's a different scenario now. Will you pay her the same amount or would you adjust your wages to reflect the situation? And right now, every teenage girl at every single multicight campus is saying, "You know what? You better adjust that. You better raise that a whole lot if there's three instead of one." Even the stingiest, most miserly person would increase the amount because the situation has changed.

Back in the Old Testament, when the tithe was instituted, the blessings available were different from what we have after Jesus came on the scene. Listen to me. In the Old Testament, the promised Messiah was coming. Today, we have Jesus, game changer. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices for sin had to be repeated year after year. Today, our sins are fully forgiven through Christ immediately. In the Old Testament, they look forward to God's presence.

Today, the Holy Spirit has chosen to take up residency and he lives within us. And did you know that the Old Testament Jews, they did not have a concept of heaven? They thought that when you died that was it. But today Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us and it's heaven where we'll be with him for all eternity. Now don't answer this question out loud. But in light of how our situation has changed, do you think we should give the same percentage to the Lord as we did in the Old Testament or do you think we should give more?

In the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 2 says, "Let every one of you give as God has prospered them." That's how he's prospered us. That's just a start. That's just generally for all Christians. You could add your own specific blessings that you've seen. And if you've recently started tithing, let me just say, "Way to go. I'm so pleased with your obedience. continue on that journey toward generosity. Now, let me be very clear because I don't want to I don't want to mislead anyone.

The Bible does not command someone to give more than a tithe. It doesn't say that anywhere. So, don't say that I said that. But the principle of generosity is woven all throughout the New Testament. And you can bless people and causes and you have some say in where that money goes. It's about living with an open hand rather than a closed fist. And let me just say, if you're a non-Christian or you're a guest of someone here today, thank you so much for listening patiently to this fireside chat with this group of Christ followers.

Yes, I want you all to grow in your giving, whatever that might look like for you. Get on the bike and start the journey. And people will say, "Well, Dave, I I can't I can't tithe with the the debt that I have and the lack of income that I have." I realize where you're coming from. I I was in a situation a number of years ago where I had overwhelming debt through some unwise choices that I made with some money. And when the market turned, everything went south.

And there's this temptation to shortcut what you give to God because the debt is overwhelming. But I promise you, God will bless it if you continue to tithe and you're generous through that. In fact, you'll get out of debt more quickly than you would have otherwise. That seems counterintuitive, but that's God's economy. 20 years ago, our church that I was serving at was in a building campaign. Our son Sam was nine when it began.

We asked our members to pray and give whatever they felt the Lord laid on their heart. And my son Sam prayed and he told us he was committing $200. And he even filled out a pledge card. Now, at the time, his only income was his allowance. $200 represented every penny of his allowance for two years. So, I sat him down and I actually tried to talk him out of it. And I said, "Hey, uh, now I want to make certain you understand this.

If you make that commitment, you will have no spending money. You will have no new baseball cards and you will have no ice cream stops. I mean, for two years. And he said, "Yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm good with that." And every week, he gave every penny of his income to the church. About nine months into the commitment, I spoke at a father and son retreat in Dallas, Texas, and Sam came with me and they asked me to share, but they also asked Sam to get up there and to talk about what it's like being a a youngster that loves the Lord because of the fact he was 10 at that time.

And so Sam shared a few thoughts and then he said, "Uh, I'd like to do a rap for you all." And you remember the rap that I did a month ago? I'm not going to do it. Don't worry. Remember that rap? Well, I wrote that about 35 years ago. And my son had memorized that rap. And so he did that rap. After he was done, everybody loved it. Pastor came up to him and said, "Hey, Sam, would you do that for our worship services tomorrow and both worship services?" He said, "Yeah, I'll be be glad to do it." Now, this was 2005.

It was an ultraconservative church and they wanted my kid to rap. In two services there were 4,000 people and he he did it and he did great. The next week the church wrote him a thank you note and in the envelope they enclosed a check for $200. And we hadn't told the soul. The only one who knew about it was our family. That was it. No one knew about it. And the skeptic would say, "Oh, well, that's great." You know, get emotional over a coincidence.

You know, do you have any idea how many specific stories I could tell of the coincidences that happen when you put God first? God was just giving my boy a wink. He's saying, "I see you." Evidently, Sam's generosity had not gone unnoticed by the Almighty, the one who lives everywhere and who owns everything. Now, I'm not saying if you give $200, God will get you back that $200 next week. That's how I normally talk when I'm in Kentucky.

All right? I just change it for you all. This is what I'm saying. God sees your generosity and God knows what he's doing and he's fair and honest and if you give him too much, he'll give you some back. You may say, "Well, Dave, no disrespect. I mean, that's a sweet story with a 10-year-old and all, but my situation isn't about baseball cards. It's about rent and food for my kids." And my answer to you is, "No disrespect intended, but I believe God is just as concerned about your financial situation as he is about a 10-year-old's allowance.

And I believe God will come through when you put him first. I have seen it too many times. Second Corinthians chapter 9 verse 6, remember this. Whoever sws sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sws generously will also reap generously. And that concept that it talks about with that word so there is indicating ongoing continuous action. Paul is not describing a one-time gift. He's describing a lifestyle of sewing.

That's what we're trying to do. Generosity is not a lifestyle. It's not a one-time event. It's the habitual direction of a person's financial life. Not a single decision. Do you remember earlier when I I talked about riding that tandem bike with my brother Jeff in Williamsburg? When you take up the back seat on a tandem bike, you are turning the steering over to the lead rider, the one who is in front. It's not a loss of power.

It's actually freeing you up. And when we were walking up to that bike, I I just knew it. I knew Jeff was going to take the lead seat. I mean, he's bigger. He was stronger. I knew I'd be in the back. Let's face it. All my life he had been Batman and I had been Robin. All right. So if you are a younger brother, you understand the plight. And when I got on that back seat, my first thought was that I was losing something.

I was losing power. But when Jeff was taking the lead, I didn't have to stress over where we went. And when he took the lead, he took the wind on. He did the heavy lifting. And I discovered that when I trusted him, he was going to take me places that I could never go on my own. And that adventure that we took was over 50 years ago. And yet it still puts a smile on my face today just thinking about how much fun we had.

I wasn't losing anything. I was actually gaining something. For many of you, when you think of the idea of tithing, you feel like you're losing something. You think, "Oh, we're going to we start tithing. We'll lose that vacation next year. We won't be in that nicer neighborhood or that fitness club membership. Kiss it goodbye." And in your mind, you see tithing as a loss to you. But if you were to talk to anyone who's been tithing for any length of time, each of them would say what they thought was subtraction from their resources or income actually is really addition.

As you see what God does with your gifts to the church, your generosity to a co-orker who's lost their job or a neighbor who's in need. I mean, it actually goes beyond addition and it really becomes multiplication. Here's what I believe. Tithing can be a multiplier because it allows God to do more with what you have than you ever could on your own. And for some of you, the starting place is that you need to you need to give your life to the Lord.

That's the next step for you. You need to go all in and say, "I I give my life to you, Christ." Hey, he is much more concerned with your heart than he is your wallet or your purse or your pocketbook. Because if you get your heart, he's got all of you. He's got what's central. And so you put him in the seat of lordship and leadership and you let him steer your life in the direction it needs to go. And for others of you, the next step for you is to start tithing and start trusting trusting God that he can make that remaining 90% go much farther than if you had 100% on your own.

And so we want to grow in that grace of giving. You know what that involves? It means changing seats and getting out of the front seat and going to the back seat. Maybe for too long you've been riding into the wind. Why not get let God take the lead? He's bigger. He's stronger. Do your part. Trust his plan. Enjoy the ride because I promise you that it will become the most fulfilling experience and most exhilarating adventure of your lifetime.

Let's pray. And after the service at every campus, if if you want to pray with someone, uh there'll be people down front. Uh maybe this message has touched a nerve or you're going through a difficulty. Just come up for prayer. Dear God, thank you for your generosity. Your word says, "For God so loved the world that that you gave." Will you remind us that we never look more like you than when we give? It's in Jesus name that we pray.

Amen. See you next week.