Extravagant In Generosity

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. Well, let's pray. I'd love to pray before we begin this message today. And Lord God, we lift up, not just us, but the entire movement you have across Southwest Florida and all the different expressions of your Christian church. We pray, Lord, that the gospel message rings forth clearly from every place this morning and you are glorified. And that, Lord, in the one Christian church that you have throughout our community, that we would be so united in service, in selflessness, in witness, in giving and generosity, and in just faithfulness to following you, Lord, that it would be evident that you are present in this community. And it would be evident to our neighbors that every person in our community of any age meets you this week through your church, through your people, in every place that they happen to be. And that you would use each one of us to be that embodied presence, that presence of your goodness and grace to everyone that we meet, Lord God. So bless this message today that we may have a transformation from me to the rest of us, Lord. That we are transformed by your good news to us, your giving to us, your generosity that is lavished upon us because of your love for us. All this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You can always follow along and get notes from the YouVersion of the Bible for this message. It's under Events, and you just type that in. And once you get there, you say Thrive Community, or well, the zip code, it will probably pop up as Thrive Community Church. And today, we're going to start looking with a Bible passage from 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service to the Lord's people. And they exceeded our expectations. They gave themselves first of all to the Lord and then, by the will of God, also to us. So we urge Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But since you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love we have kindled in you, see also that you excel in the grace of giving. Hey, I'm excited to be here today. This is our third message in a series of four called Selfless, as you have seen. In the first week, we discussed how we can be selfless, that we put others first by sharing Jesus with them, being bold in witness. And last week, we talked about how being selfless, giving ourselves away, and how we faithfully serve others rather than self-promote. You realize we do live in a very self-centered, self-aggrandizing, self-absorbed culture. Yeah, right? And the church has been called, God's people have been called to be counter-cultural, to be outside of themselves, to seek and save and serve and give. And so I just love the fact of that. And then next week, I'm really thinking this message is probably going to resonate with a lot of you, and that is that we're going to talk about being faithful or grateful in the grind. That we just keep on, keep on, because I know that's who we need, people who just do, because that's what we're called to do. And it's not always easy, but that's what God has for us as well. But today, we're talking about being extravagant in generosity, extravagant. Now, I got a question for you. You get onto a plane, and it's Southwest, you get to choose your seat. You know, it's not assigned to you. So the question I have is, if you get to the plane and you've got the window seat, the middle seat, and the aisle seat, I think that picture, they should be shoved together closer, so you have no knee room at all. But which one do you choose? How many of you would choose the window seat, if you had a choice? How many would choose the aisle seat, just in case you got to go, right? How many, how many, anybody choose the middle seat? That's purgatorial, isn't it? You know, if there is a purgatory, it's here on earth, and it's the middle seat on an airplane, stuck between two people with colds, or something like that. Yeah, yeah, okay. Well, we're going to get to that a little later. Now, I researched the idea of selfishness. I know, you Google it, right? That's what you do to research anything. And you know what I found? This article that just said it this way, science confirms the obvious, Americans are selfish. Now, I didn't really have to do that, did I? To look up on the internet, are we selfish or aren't we? I mean, does Google tell me I'm selfish? All I have to do is go to the mall at Christmas time, or better yet, have ...