Give More

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. We've challenged y'all to maybe spend a little less, whatever less means, but to spend less. The kids are gone, you can spend less. They're in Thrive Kids, okay? Spend less, okay? Worship fully. And today we're going to talk about giving more, which seems to be like a contradiction, but we're going to get to that. So let's start with prayer, Lord. Lord God, this day we are thankful for you and your goodness, your grace. We are amazed. This time of the year comes and we're just not prepared. But today we ask you to prepare our hearts and open our lives to your word and your word of truth and how you give. And how you've given so much. You've given everything, ultimately, completely. And how, in response to that, we can give just a little. But we respond to your goodness and grace in our lives. We thank you, Lord, for many churches across this area. We thank you, Lord, that this day many are proclaiming your goodness and grace, your gospel. And I pray, Lord, for everywhere and every place your word is proclaimed today in all of your churches. So bless us together with them, Lord. Draw us closer to you and create across Southwest Florida where we are planted, Lord, a movement of your spirit. That more people come to understand the gift of Christmas, who you are, what you are about, what you have done for them. We also pray, Lord God, today for all those who are graduating at Florida Gulf Coast and for this winter break, this Christmas break for them. Lord, we just celebrate with our students here and we ask that you would bless them now as they move on in one form or another. That they move into a vocation rather than just a career, that they move into a calling and they see themselves as following you in whatever direction, in whatever way they are to go. So bless them, Lord, in their graduation ceremonies this day and all the students, Lord, as they have many already departed. And others as they leave this area to go home to celebrate Christmas. All this we pray in Jesus name. Amen. So our text today, we're going to be talking about, like I said, giving more. Now, this might seem like a contradiction. You know, we talked about spending less, but giving more. How does that work? Did you realize that 66 million people here in the United States are going into debt this Christmas season in order to buy the gifts they want for themselves and for others? And that almost three out of ten people are still in debt from last year's giving. That's according to NerdWallet. Wow. And now I'm talking about giving more? What? I'm not asking you to go into debt financially. I think when we start reading from the Gospel of John today, what it means to give and the gift of Christmas itself, we're going to learn that giving more may mean spending less in terms of money. And yet you still can give more. Now, you can't. And honestly, we can't give more than God. OK, we can't out give God. You can't give back to God anything that's not already his. Everything you have is a gift from God. Everything, you know, and you can't out give God. But I think I can give more than I have given because of the way my gifts often are, well, peripheral gifts, tangential. They don't mean that much. And I think I can learn to give more. So let's read John, chapter one, verses nine to 18. OK. And you can find all of this through the Bible app, the you version of the Bible app. There's notes with just not only these Bible passages, but all sorts of all of the outline for this message in there. It's a great way to kind of follow along and also take notes. So here is John, chapter one. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For from the fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is of the fathers at the father's side. He has made him now. So what does it mean to give more? And I think it's really in this passage. We're going to learn three things about what it means when God gives. And when we give more, you're giving is going to push you to be these three things. Be present, be personal and be vulnerable. Now, that last one might scare a few of ...