LIVING TO GIVE
Day 6
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” - Matthew 25:40
Imagine discovering that the ordinary person we stopped to help was an opportunity to serve Jesus Himself. According to Jesus, generosity is far more personal than we sometimes realize.
Jesus identifies Himself with people in need.
The hungry.
The stranger.
The overlooked.
The hurting.
The person who cannot repay us.
This changes generosity from a financial transaction into an act of worship.
When we serve people, Jesus says, “You did it for Me.”
That is an entirely different way to see the world.
Instead of walking through life asking, “What can we get?” followers of Jesus learn to ask, “Who can we bless?”
That is what it means to live to give.
And this final day is where the idea needs to leave the page and enter real life.
Think back over this week.
We remembered that God delivered us so He could develop us.
We examined what our resources reveal about our hearts.
We faced the fear and tension that make generosity difficult.
We learned to put whatever we have into Jesus' hands.
We allowed generosity to expose what God wants to transform within us.
Now comes the question that matters:
What are we actually going to do?
Not someday.
Not when we make more.
Not when the kids are older.
Not when every debt is gone.
What can we do with what God has placed in our hands right now?
Maybe there is a family we know that needs groceries.
Maybe our church is feeding hungry people locally or around the world.
Maybe someone in our neighborhood is going through a difficult season.
Maybe we have something sitting in the garage that someone else desperately needs.
Maybe our greatest gift today isn't financial at all. Maybe somebody needs our time, our table, our encouragement, or our presence.
Let's do something real.
And if we have children at home, we can bring them into it.
Around the table, we can ask:
“Who could our family bless this week?”
Then we listen.
Children sometimes see people adults overlook.
Once we identify someone, we can decide together what to do.
Then we do it.
This is how generosity becomes part of our family's spiritual DNA.
Years from now, our children may not remember every sermon they heard. But they may remember watching us load groceries into the car for another family.
They may remember saving money to feed people they had never met.
They may remember opening our home to someone who needed a place at the table.
They may remember hearing, “God has given us more than enough, so we're going to share.”
Those memories preach.
And those choices shape generations.
The boy in John 6 probably had no idea what Jesus would do with his lunch. He simply released what was in his hands.
Jesus did the rest.
That is our invitation too.
We don't have to be the Savior.
We don't have to meet every need.
We don't have to have unlimited resources.
We simply need open hands.
Because Jesus can take whatever we place in His hands and multiply it for His purposes, our good, and the good of others.
Before this day ends, let's make generosity tangible.
Give something.
Serve someone.
Feed someone.
Encourage someone.
Create margin.
Include our families.
Then we can reflect together:
What did giving reveal about our hearts?
Where did we see God at work?
What would change if generosity became normal for our families rather than occasional?
A life spent only on ourselves eventually becomes very small.
But lives placed in the hands of Jesus can reach people we may never meet and outlive us in ways we may never see.
We were created for more than consumption.
We have been blessed to become a blessing.
We were delivered so we could live differently.
So let's open our hands.
Let's trust Jesus with what is in them.
And let's live to give.
WATCH THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE HERE: https://youtu.be/vFZTJufL7FE?si=Z4stL_SDouLkJfHm
