Cultivating Generosity

SERMON: 2011-07-24--ac1167--cultivating-generosity SOURCE DURATION: 00:50:26.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: Candidate 9 concludes the speaker's spoken material (the sermon/prayer) immediately before the transition to sung music/hymn lyrics starting at candidate 10 ('Consecrated Lord to Thee'). Therefore, it is the last segment of the sermon. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:47:22.220-00:50:12.380 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Well, we were looking, you will recall if you were here last week, at the parable of the rich fool, recorded for us in Luke chapter 2, and we saw how Jesus uses the question of one of his bystanders, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me, to warn against the danger of greed." Greed that we have seen was at the heart of Ananiases and Sapphira's sin in our ongoing study of Acts chapter 5. Here is how Jesus put it in Luke chapter 12 verse 15. He said, "Watch out, be on your guard against all kinds of greed. A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And then we look together at three very practical steps that according to the teaching of Jesus in Luke chapter 12, you and I can take and must take if that natural inclination to clutch is to be broken and we are to cultivate God's kind of generosity. Step number one is we need to be able to identify what greed really looks like. And I pointed out last week that as long as you identify greed or define greed as, you know, just wanting more and more out there for yourself, then most of us can sort of excuse ourselves and say, "Well, that's not really me. I just want what I need and I'm pretty satisfied with that." But when you understand that in the definition of Jesus, greed is a love for this present world and finding your security in it as opposed to finding your security in your relationship with God, well then I think there isn't the one of us here who can say we are not guilty of greed. Is that not true? I mean, how much of our time is spent trying to keep body and soul together as comfortably as we do compared to the amount of time that is spent in getting to know God better and learning to trust Him more deeply? Step number one is we need to learn to define what greed is biblically. Step number two that we looked at is learning to recognize that God is the giver of all good things. Now, I know we pay lip service to that, but if truth be known, you know, most of us really think it's my hard work, it's my cleverness, it's my good opportunities that have enabled me to carve out the kind of empire, the kind of possessions that I have, and it's true, God uses those things. But all you have to do is get sick once, all you have to do is lose your job or go broke, and you discover there's a lot more involved in having our needs met than just our own cleverness. And Jesus says learn to look at the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, God in Christ becomes your Father. And He says He will bless you and meet your needs as you seek Him and His kingdom first. Those are biblical kingdom dynamics. And then we saw, and I'm just reviewing this so that we have the picture clearly in our mind, then we saw that it isn't good enough to define greed properly, it isn't good enough to know that God our Father is like this, we need to put it into practice, we need to live generously. That is to say, we need to take what God has given us, and we need to learn to invest it in the purposes of God and in the lives of other people. And that's why we want to pick it up this morning, because if truth be known, that's easier said than done. Because you see, the default position for each of us is never abounding generosity. The default position for each one of us is to make sure that our own needs are met and satisfied first. Is that not true? And so we don't mind giving as long as we can give out of our abundance. I don't mind spending time with you if you're a pleasant person to spend time with. But if you're not, then you're going to wear out my welcome really pretty quickly. And I don't mind giving for a cause that I'm passionate about. And I don't mind investing in the kingdom if I feel good about it. But to do it regularly, and to do it consistently, and to make it a lifestyle, that's very different. And you know what's interesting about that? It doesn't matter how much you have, it never gets easier or better. Did you know that? I mean, a lot of us like to think, well, if I had more time, I would spend more time visiting my neighbor. If I had more money, I could afford to be more generous. But did you know that statistically the richer people are, the less they give percentage-wise? Did you know that? The people who give the most are not the richest people. Sometimes it's the poorest people. Because the richer you are, percentage-wise, the bigger the amount is. And it doesn't take very long to discover that it doesn't matter how much you have, you always want more. Isn't that true? Apart from God's grace, I can always think of a better car. I can always think of a nicer house. I can always think of better clothes. You know, aren't there times when you're walking through grocery stores, clothing stores, or appliance stores, or whatever your interest happens to lie, and it's like the aisles are talking to you? "Buy me. You need me. I will make your life better. You can show me off to your neighbor. I've become part of... I have arrived in your life." See, the default position is always, "I want more." I love this verse in Proverbs chapter 30 that goes like this, "The leech has two daughters." You know what a leech is? It's an upset. The leech has two daughters. They cry. There are three things that are never satisfied. Four that never say enough. The grave, the barren womb, land which is never satisfied with water, and fire which never says enough. That's the nature of greed in the human heart. So, it isn't just going to get broken even as God's children by pretending that we know better. It takes an active, deliberate cultivation of generosity. And in the time that we have this morning, and we'll have to see how far we can get, I at least want to make a start walking us through this passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, where Paul lays out for you and me some very fundamental biblical principles that if we understand them, embrace them, put them into practice, it will help us to grow towards the kind of generosity that God says ought to characterize us as his children, and that even the world says makes for fulfilled and satisfied people. That's not our primary goal, but it is the fruit of obedience to the word of God. So, notice in the verses that we read together, that Paul says this journey towards cultivating generosity begins with an understanding of the law of sowing and reaping. Listen again to verse 6. Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Now there's a word picture that we can all identify with because we may not all be farmers or have been brought up on a farm, but most of us do a little bit of gardening here and there, and the whole idea of gardening is what? If you want to multiply your seed, you don't keep it in the little bag, you put it into the ground, and given the proper conditions, that seed will sprout, it will grow to maturity, it will bear fruit, and then you harvest it. And Paul here draws on a very simple principle in terms of sowing and reaping. He says, if you want to reap an abundant crop, what do you have to do? You have to sow generously. Plant one bean and all you're going to get is one bean plant and the beans that come off that plant. You plant ten bean plants, and if your rabbit doesn't get it, which he does at our house, I never even knew that rabbits ate beans. So we have this row of beans, starts off on this end like this big, and then by the time you get over here, they've all been eaten up. It's like the rabbit hides by the fence, and he chews it every time it tries to shoot up. But if you want to reap generously, then you've got to sow generously. And Paul says the same thing applies in the whole area of stewardship. And while we're talking primarily about money in the context of this passage, it's not limited to that, because who is the one who has the most friends? Well, it's the person who most steps out of himself or herself and builds those relationships. Who is the one who succeeds in business? It's the one who is willing to take the risk and who is willing to invest. Well, biblically, in terms of an economic structure, says the Apostle Paul, the same thing is true here. If you want to be blessed, and if you want to see your resources multiplied, then you don't clutch them in the fear that you're not going to have enough for yourself. No, in obedience to the Holy Spirit and to Scripture, you're going to sow your seed. You're going to spread it out as God calls you to in the confident expectation that God will bless you in doing it, and he will help multiply the resources of your lives. Listen to how the book of Proverbs teaches us. This is a theme throughout all of Scripture. Proverbs 11, 24 to 25, puts it this way, "One man gives freely, yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper. He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." There you have it again, the law of sowing and reaping. Sow liberally, you will harvest liberally. Sow stingily, sparingly, then that is going to be the harvest you sow. And for some of us who struggle financially, and I know how difficult that can be and the economic times in which we live, the solution isn't simply to hoard, hold on, and to become ever more stingy. No, the solution is to step out in faith obediently and to sow as God invites you and calls you to sow in the expectation that God will meet you there. Now that requires faith, and that is counterintuitive. I love the story of the man who was traveling through a barren wilderness, had long sins run out of water, could hardly go any further than he ran into a sort of an oasis where, if you can believe it, there was one of these old-fashioned hand pumps. You remember? Some of you grew up in homes where that's how you got your water? I remember seeing houses where in the kitchen instead of a tap, there's this little pump. But if you know anything like that about those kind of pumps, what do they need? They need to be primed. So sitting next to this pump out in the middle of nowhere is a little dish full of water, and beside the dish is a little sign that says in order to pump water, you have to take all the contents of this dish and pour it into the pump in order to prime it. Now put yourself in this situation. Here you are. You are dying of thirst. You got water in front of you, and you must decide are you going to take the risk of pouring it into the pump with somebody who you don't know's promise that you're going to get more water, or are you going to drink the bowl and forget the pump? I know what I would do. I would try to get the best of both worlds. I would drink as much as I dared and then use the rest to prime the pump. But what if what I drank wasn't enough to quench my thirst, and what if there wasn't enough left to prime the pump? Then not only would I be out, but everybody that follows after me would have the same problem. Well that's what faith is. And the whole concept of sowing and reaping depends on the principle of faith that God is my Father who is in heaven. He's going to honor his word, and he will bless me as I step out in faith. Some of us here need to learn to grow in faith and step out, and we'll talk more about that in just a moment. So Paul begins by reminding us of how nature works, and he says, as does Jesus in all his parables by the way, he says if you want to understand how the world of the spirit works, he says you look at the world of the natural. Because guess what? The same God made them both. And you're a fool if you understand the one and practice the one, but you don't understand and practice the other. Then he goes on to make a second observation. He says that any decision to cultivate generosity ought to be based, it ought to come from the heart. The decision to give must come from the heart. Look how he goes on, verse 7, "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver." Not under compulsion or reluctantly. God loves a cheerful giver. Some of you may remember my telling this story. A dad was trying to teach his son, a young boy of 10 or 12, the art of stewardship not only, but the art of sowing and reaping. And he was trying to tell his son, you know, you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly, you sow generously, you reap generously. And so he gave him two coins, he gave him a quarter, and he gave him a loonie. And he says, "Son, now the next time the collection plate comes around in church, you've got to choose, are you going to sow sparingly or are you going to sow generously?" And he was of course hoping that his kid had learned his lesson and was quite dismayed to notice that as the collection plate went by, guess which coin went into the collection plate? It wasn't the loonie, no, Elsie. I'm sorry to say. It was the quarter. So never to lose the teaching moment, he takes his son aside later on and he says, "Well, you know, what was that about?" Well, the boy said, "I heard the pastor say that God loves a cheerful giver, and I decided I would be much more cheerful giving my quarter than giving my loonie." And if truth be known, there is something about that with which we all identify, isn't there? Well, the Bible says God loves a cheerful giver. Question is why? Why does God love a cheerful giver? I'll give you two reasons. Reason number one is that a cheerful giver gets it. A cheerful giver gets it. What do I mean by that? A cheerful giver, a cheerful giver gets the reality of the kingdom. Cheerful giver gets that God is at the center of the universe. God is the ultimate giver of everything that I have, and what I have or don't have in life is not determined simply by my hard work, by my cleverness, but rather by my relationship with God. Remember Jesus says, "Seek first what? The kingdom of God and His." And what's going to happen to you? All these things, which things? Food, clothing, and shelter. Who fights for food, clothing, and shelter? The pagans run after all of these things, but your Father in heaven knows that you need them. So a cheerful giver knows that life is found in God, and so in cultivating his relationship with God, knowing that God understands him, loves him like he looks after the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, so the cheerful giver knows that he can never out give God. And he knows that as he walks in relationship with God, and there is always more to be had in terms of his needs being satisfied, then God will look after him so that as he sows, God will multiply his seed, and he will cause it to bear much fruit so that he's got more to give. And if you think I'm just making that up, listen to how Paul now continues this chapter with these words. 2 Corinthians 9, 8, "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all you need, you will abound in every good work." Notice all the alls in there. God is able to make, say it with me, all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all you need, you will abound in every good work. See, here's the thing. God wants you and me to be a reflection of his character. And his character is one of generosity. But God is not so unreasonable as to expect something from you or me that we don't have the resources to give. So what does God say? You sow what I give you, and I will multiply your resources, because God says my desire is that in all things, at all ways, in all times, you will have enough for every good work. Now I wonder how many of us believe that as we step out in faith in the places where God calls us and in the places where God equips us and gives us faith for, he will give us more than enough not only for our own needs, but for the needs of people around. That, just for the record, is one of the reasons that Christians by and large in today's world are pretty much the most generous people there are, statistically, because even though none of us practice this perfectly or believe this necessarily to the nth degree, the reality is the evidence of grace in our lives is that, you know, we may not be a ten, but we're somewhere in that continuum, aren't we? Because that's what faith does. Now listen again to how Paul goes on further in this particular passage, because here's what he says next. "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. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous and on every occasion and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. He will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion." Now every teaching can be distorted and there are those who teach giving in order to get rich. And guess what? That's wrong, because God is not an automaton. He is not a heavenly slot machine. You put in the quarter and you get out the buck. No, that's not how it works. But to the believing heart that says, "God is my Father and I'm going to demonstrate my faith in him by faithfulness and obedience in terms of the resources that God has given me," to the fainting heart that says, "But what about me? Will I have enough?" Jesus says, "Look at the birds of the air. Look at the lilies of the field. Look at the reality of sowing and reaping. You sow generously and you will reap generously and you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly." Why does God love a cheerful giver? Because a cheerful giver gets it. A cheerful giver understands the nature of faith. But there's a second reason. God loves a cheerful giver and that is that a cheerful giver reflects the character of God. Because note again how Paul ends this passage in verse 15. He says, "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift." What do you think God's indescribable gift is? It's the gift of his Son, whose grace at work in the lives of God's people reproduces the character of God in their hearts and in their lives. And if God the Father is the ultimate fountain of generosity, and if children are a reflection of the Heavenly Father, then does it not stand to reason that the more we become like him, the more we're going to reflect his character. And just as you and I are excited to see our children grow, learn to take the responsibilities and learn to demonstrate maturity and do life right. So our Father in heaven, he watches you and me and he says, "At a boy, at a girl, you are increasingly a reflection of my heart." You not only get it, but the world can look at you. And by looking at your generosity and by looking at how you invest yourself in the lives of other people, even if sometimes you're going to get kicked in the teeth and even if nobody notices it and nobody gives you any credit or any praise, the Father who is in heaven says, "I take note and come the final day of judgment, the whole world will see how I reward you for your faithfulness." Because not a deed done, however unsung or persecuted in the world before God, will go unnoticed on that final day. And in the meantime, God says, "I will give you what you need in order to prosper in the things that I have called you for." Am I making any sense here? Can you identify, you know, with any of this in your own experience? This isn't just something I'm trying to impose on you. And don't ever think that God loves the cheerful giver because he needs what you've got to give. Because sometimes in church we think, "Well, we're doing God a favor. We're doing the church a favor. I better do my Christian duty." This is not about what God needs. It so happens. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the gold in every mine, and you know, he can sell a few cattle and he can mine a few nuggets of gold. He has no problem financing his kingdom. He's quite self-secure. This is about you and me. This is about growing us to be like him and breaking the power of that clutching greed that is so native and so character to every son and daughter of Adam. All right, we'll make one more point and then we'll draw this to a close and we'll have to come back to it Lord willing next week. Not only do we need to understand the law of sowing and reaping, not only do we need to understand that God wants us to give from the heart because God loves a cheerful giver, but the third principle that Paul spells out for us is that giving generously serves a two-fold purpose. What is that two-fold purpose? Paul spelt it out very clearly. It helps people and it brings praise to God. Notice verse 12, "This service that you perform," that is the money that you're raising for the saints in Jerusalem who are now going through famine because of things that have happened there, that's the broader context, "this service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God." Notice how both things are mentioned here. Your service supplies the needs of God's people, but it also overflows in many expressions of thanks to God. Let me talk briefly about each of those. Now, it's true that God can provide the needs of His creation directly. Israel's journey through the wilderness was a marvelous example of manna raining down from heaven, and God can do amazingly surprising things directly in supernatural way. But I dare say that most of us sitting here today have probably never experienced manna coming down out of heaven. In fact, most of us have never experienced dollars falling out of heaven and landing on our doorsteps. Is that not true? I mean, sometimes we kind of wish it would happen, but typically that's not what happens. In fact, typically, you know, you don't even win the lottery, and typically it just doesn't happen out of nowhere. How does it happen? Well, it happens because somebody, somewhere, is stirred to contribute to your need, whether they know about it, yes or no. Maybe the boss gives you a bonus and you weren't expecting it. Maybe the government was unusually generous and returned more of your hard-earned taxes than what you had bargained for. Or maybe somebody knew that you were short on groceries and they came over with a bag and they put it on the table and they said, "Here, here it is." You see, generosity in the body of Christ is God's way of making sure that equality is the rule of the day. That's what Paul talks about earlier when he says in chapter 8 verses 13 to 15, "Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard-pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality as it is written, 'He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.'" I don't know about you, but that is a mind-blowing thing. I've said before it's people who have less who are much more in favor of equality than people who have more. Is that not true? But the reality is that if God is at work in your heart and you have this world's goods as John says you have, and you have a brother or a sister who is struggling, and leave alone for a minute all the dynamics of why are they struggling and whatever else, if the love of God lives in your heart you're going to do what you can legitimately do to satisfy the needs of others. That's why in the early community they were selling their goods, they were investing in each other's lives because they knew they were a body together. What would the world say if God's people could authentically and genuinely live that way? I mean, doesn't that blow your mind? Or are you saying, "Oh my goodness, I worked hard for my little bank account and you're not getting your hands on it." Remember God loves a cheerful giver. He's not going to make you do something or make you give something that you aren't prepared to give out of a cheerful heart. So don't worry about that. But understand what growth in Christ should look like for God's children because what happens when, look at your own life, earlier you raised your hands and you said people had been generous to you and many of us likewise could raise our hands and say we in turn have been generous in other people's lives. But look at your own life. What happened when somebody came over and put that bag of groceries on your table when you didn't know where your next meal was going to come from? What happened when somebody knew that you were going to lose your house and they tied you over with a loan payment so that you could get back on your feet and life could move forward? What happens in your heart when we freely share what God has given to his people? I'll tell you what happens. Paul describes it this way. He says in verse 14, "And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you." I look back on times and places where people have stepped into my life and they have given freely of their hearts without any demand or expectation of return and I will carry such people in my heart until the day I die. Don't you? Well, don't you? Or don't you ever have to? Are you all so self-sufficient that you've never, ever needed? Because our pride gets in the way big time, doesn't it? But before God is done building community, he puts us in places where we discover sometimes we're not as smart as we think we are, we're not as self-sufficient as we think we are. We need each other. Can it go wrong? Yes. With Ananias and Sapphira, it went wrong, badly wrong. Did God step in? Yes, he did. But are hearts drawn when we share each other's lives? Yes, indeed. And some of us, well, you know, when we first came to this country back in 1958, not only were we farmed out to some people as many of us new immigrants were, but once we were established a little bit, a new immigrant family came and they stayed with us at my parents' generosity in our house for a whole month. And, you know, they offered to pay and my father said, "You don't need to. This is our gift to you." And I know that for as long as those people lived, there was a place in their hearts for our family because they recognized the bond of brotherly love and brotherly generosity. It's one thing to talk about it, people. It's another to practice it. And God calls us to practice that kind of generosity according to the measure of our faith and the resources that God has given us. So, yes, giving builds community if done right and it can be done wrong. But more than that, remember the second thing, it gives praise to God. For notice again how Paul puts it in verse 12, "The service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people, is overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourself, men 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." At least three if not four times in this broader passage he talks about your generosity in meeting the needs of these Jerusalem Christians is going to abound in praise and thanksgiving to God. And how many of us here, having found ourselves in situations with our back against the wall, whether economically or socially or whatever else, and God raised up somebody to put those groceries on the table or to take us out for supper or to invite us over to their homes or to bring us into their social circle or to have us sit by their bed when they're dying, not speaking any words maybe but just showing the love of Jesus and not demanding or expecting anything back. How many of us in those kind of situations don't fall on our knees and thank God because when we thought we were forsaken, when we thought we were abandoned, when we thought nobody cared, God raised up somebody to show that his face was still turned towards us and that he still loved us with an everlasting love. My last year in seminary, Michelle and I married, Lord willing, beginning of next month, 40th anniversary. Up until that time my family had provided for my needs going to school, and we said here's an opportunity for us to try to demonstrate God's faithfulness in providing for us. And so after our wedding we had garnered about $1,500 that was going to have to do us for the whole year. Now it wasn't such a big exercise in faith because we knew that if we failed the family would step in and bail us out, but forget about that for a moment. It was an honest desire to say, "Lord, can we trust you to look after us?" So we get married on September 3rd and, you know, after Labor Day school starts. So we had a three-day honeymoon up Collingwood Way and made our way back to Grand Rapids. And prior to that we had gone to Grand Rapids to try to find housing. And about the cheapest apartment that we could find in those days was $80 or $85 a month. You know, this is back in the early 70s. But it didn't take long to figure out that you multiply 85 by however many months that we were going to be in Grand Rapids, and our $1,500 wouldn't last us very long. So we said, "Lord, what do we do?" because none of these places that we looked at we particularly liked. So we went to the seminary office and we said, "You know, can you give us some hints on housing?" And the secretary there, bless her soul, said, "I have just discovered that Le Grave Avenue Christian Reform Church has an apartment in their building where the custodian used to live, and they're looking for a seminary student to occupy it for the next year. Go talk to them." Well, make a long story short, if you know anything about Grand Rapids, Le Grave Avenue Christian Reform Church is the richest church by far in the whole denomination. I mean, it's in the seedy part of town, but this is where all the millionaires used to go and still do. And if you've ever read "Cabbage and Kings" in the manor with J.D. Eppinga, he was the senior pastor there. Well, long story short, we ended up being given that apartment. They furnished it for us. We lived there the whole year for nothing, absolutely nothing except to make sure that when there were meetings at church because of the neighborhood in which they lived, it was our job to lock the doors. That's all we had to do. And for that whole year we lived there. And I remember thanking God for such an obvious demonstration of the generosity of this particular community. But not only that, because, you know, still money goes pretty fast, two kids whom we barely knew but who had jobs decided in the course of that year that they felt called of God to start sending us their weekly or monthly tithe. And it wasn't a huge, big amount and, you know, all told probably didn't make a whole lot of difference, but it was far more significant than the amount of money that they contributed. You know why? Because there was another token of our Father in heaven saying to us, "You seek me and you seek your kingdom and my kingdom and I will provide for your needs." And we came through that year, we spent all our $1,500, but we demonstrated to ourselves and to everybody that we could ever tell that story to, that our Father in heaven had looked after our needs abundantly through the generosity of God's people. And there are many of you here who have experienced similar stories at similar times. And so, yes, God calls us to sow our seed. He wants us to invest it wisely and prudently and generously out of a heart that overflows with good cheer. And God says when we do that, not only will God's people be built up, but God will receive the praise. I'm going to leave it at that for this week, Lord willing. Maybe next week we'll come back to it and we'll talk about a giving plan. Because if you read all the verses leading up to this, this doesn't just happen. And the road to hell is paved with what? Good intentions. So come back next week, we'll talk about that some more. Stand with me now as we close the service in prayer. Lord, I think so many of us here have those stories of Your amazing generosity and Your amazing grace. And for every one of those, we give You thanks. And for every time when we have reached out and invested ourselves in each other's lives and You have drawn our hearts together, we praise You, O God, for the community that You build. And yet, Lord, there's also been those times when we have felt cut off when we've wondered where You are and we've wondered where other people are. And we don't always understand what it is that You're doing or what it is that You're trying to accomplish. And we pray that even in those moments of darkness, that faith will not fail us, that our view of You will not be diminished, but that understanding who it is that we are in Jesus and knowing who it is and what it is that You have committed Yourself to, that Lord, by faith we may walk out that journey knowing that even if tears tarry for the night, joy comes in the morning. And if not in the here and now, that in that final day, we're going to hear Your Word, well done, good and faithful servant, You've been faithful over little, I will put You over much. And so, Lord, help us timidly, fearfully, frightened sometimes to step out from our comfort zone, to hear Your Word, to hear Your Spirit, and to just take those small steps of faith that You invite us to take so that the world may know that we not only get it, but that we're children of our Father who is in heaven, because He makes the Son to rise on the just and on the unjust, and His reign to fall on the righteous and on the unrighteous, and He bids us to grow up and become like Him. Even so, help us, Lord Jesus, in Your name we pray. And God's people said, "Amen." [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:47:22.220; remove through 00:50:26.000] Consecrated Lord to Thee, take my moments and my days, let them flow in endless praise, let them flow in endless praise. Take my voice and let me sing, always only for my King, take my lips and let them be, filled with messages for Thee, filled with messages for Thee. Take my silver and my gold, not of mine should I withhold, take my intellect and use every power as Thou shalt choose, every power as Thou shalt choose. Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet in treasure store, take myself and I will be ever only all for Thee, ever only all for Thee. Amen. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:50:26.000; resume after this marked segment]