BEYOND Means More

First-Centenary United Methodist

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BEYOND Means More

October 20, 2024 • Rev. Dr. Will Lauderback • Ephesians 3:20–21

The most effective path to generosity is a spiritual path where you set your heart

on things above. Then, your financial priorities will naturally flow out of your

spiritual priorities.

People often describe this as “living a generous lifestyle.” It is always a temptation

to give to God in such a way that it makes little impact on how you live. The

challenge of living a generous lifestyle is to intentionally and prayerfully find ways

to do just that – to let your giving touch your living!

King David declared, “I will not give to God that which costs me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:24)

He understood that the value of the gift presented to God is determined by its

value to the giver.

A gift that would touch the heart of God must first touch the life of the giver! This

is the spirit of lifestyle generosity — “If it is for my God, my gift must have meaning

and value to me.”

Lifestyle generosity is a level of giving that affects you – your plans, your activities,

your attitude and your approach to life. It means giving up something in one area

so that you can give more of yourself in another.

BEYOND Expectations

November 3, 2024 • Rev. Jason Gattis • Ruth 1:8, Ruth 1:16–17

Key Passage: Ruth 1:8 (NASB) And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. Key Passage: Ruth 1:16-17 (NASB) But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. “Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me.”

BEYOND Expectations

November 3, 2024 • Rev. Dr. Will Lauderback • Ruth 1:8, Ruth 1:16–17

BEYOND Our Current Reality

October 27, 2024 • Rev. Dr. Will Lauderback • 2 Corinthians 8:1–5

Key Passage: 2 Corinthians 8:1-5 (NASB) Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. Generosity Journey: An Initial Giver is someone who decides to give for the first time, out of a response to God’s Word about giving. This is someone who decides to give something and trust God and the leaders of the Church with this gift. (2 Corinthians 8:7-15) A Consistent Giver is someone who decides to give something and to give it on a consistent basis to exercise the discipline of giving on a regular basis. Often, someone who decides to make their gift an online recurring gift will be someone who is learning the behavior of consistency. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8) An Intentional Giver is someone who is beginning to think about their giving in relation to other things on which they spend their money. This giver starts to make their giving an intentional choice that reflects how they prioritize it in relation to other things they spend their money on. (Luke 14:28-35) A Sacrificial Giver is someone who recognizes the cost that Christ paid on the cross for us and is surrendered to honoring God with 100% of their resources as a result. A Sacrificial Giver is someone who gives in a way that changes them, in a way that reflects that their giving is governing their spending/saving rather than their spending/saving governing their giving. (Colossians 1:15-18, 22-23) A Lifetime Giver is someone who is thinking about the longer tail of generosity rather than just the shorter term of month-to-month generosity or even year-to-year. A Lifetime Giver makes decisions in the short term that have longer term effects as it relates to their generosity capacity. A Lifetime Giver might be someone who has a lifetime giving goal, something that will govern their larger ticket decisions. Much like a Sacrificial Giver makes a commitment that will govern his/her monthly and annual decisions, a Lifetime Giver makes a lifetime or longer-term giving commitment that governs his/her larger-item purchases like homes, cars, investments, and the like. (1 Timothy 6:6-19)