“Freely”
3-week sermon series
Are you living with a mindset of scarcity, or abundance? When Jesus commissioned his disciples, he told them “Freely you have received; freely give.” In other words: take what God has given you—at no cost—and generously give it out to others. It’s such a simple concept, but it contains the secret of the truly good life. If we learn to allow God to fill us each day, we will stop feeling like we’re constantly in deficit and we’ll begin to overflow with good things to give out to others—including our presence, our pardon, and our possessions.
“The Gift of Presence” (1 Thessalonians 2:7-12)
Because of the gospel, God promises to be with us always. Jesus took on human flesh to walk among us. And now through the Holy Spirit, we have access to God at all times, experiencing his peace, guidance, and empowerment. As we learn to walk in the joy of his presence, we’ll naturally want to offer our presence to other people—freely giving of our time to love them as God has loved us.
“The Gift of Pardon” (Matthew 18:21-35)
We often minimize the magnitude of our sin and forget the sheer grace of God’s mercy. But when we regularly acknowledge our debt and praise God for the forgiveness paid for by Christ’s blood, something changes inside us. Our pride and anger fade away, we stop keeping a record of wrongs, and we become quick to forgive others just as God forgave us.
“The Gift of Possessions” (2 Corinthians 8:1-9)
In our materialistic culture, it’s easy for us to feel like we never have enough. So when we hear of opportunities to give, we instinctively feel threatened and we tighten our grip. But our relationship with the children of Malawi has reminded us that we’re the recipients of a staggering level of blessing—both materially and spiritually. As we begin to see more clearly God’s grace to us, we’ll find ourselves opening our hands to the people around us, and we’ll experience the joy of generosity.
