During his time, one of the biggest criticisms of Jesus was that he hung out with and ate with the wrong crowd. Jesus was constantly inviting people into his life. Jesus extended hospitality, inclusivity, generosity, and grace regardless of religion, race, class, gender, culture, nationality, or sexual nature. We are called to walk across cultural lines and barriers to engage in the lives of all people.

Finding time to spend with others might seem like a challenge, but everyone has to eat! Eating was also a common form of connection used by Jesus during his time on earth. When you share a meal with someone, you are in an intimate space with them. There is room for a deeper conversation. Room for relationship.

Support the show

Jesus generously blessed others in so many ways: food, acceptance, healing, resources, time, and ultimately his life. Clarksburg is called to live a life that reflects Jesus’ self-giving nature to bless others. To bless someone is to know what a blessing is to them. It might be words of affirmation, acts of kindness, or gifts. 

Support the show

We excited and inspired to step into the mission of God in deeper ways in 2020! Jesus summed up this mission in this, "The Kingdom of God has come near!" It surprised the whole because it meant that glory, joy, love, mercy, justice of the Kingdom of Heaven had come to Earth through Jesus, and all of creation would never be the same. After proclaiming this truth, Jesus demonstrated it with his life, death, and resurrection. Then, he invited us to join him in this mission to proclaim and demonstrate that Heaven had come to Earth.

The Early Christians surprised the world with their generous, hospitable, Spirit-led, Christlike lives as missionaries to their own neighbors and neighborhoods. And we are invited to join them in living lives that demonstrate and proclaim the Kingdom has come near. But it all starts by allowing Jesus to transform and empower you.

Support the show

When you think about it, it’s pretty absurd that God calls us to live extravagantly generous lives. It’s not like God needs our help. God owns everything and God can accomplish whatever he wants however he wants. But just like the man who Jesus asked if he could borrow his donkey and colt to make his entrance into the city of Jerusalem, Jesus invites us to participate in his redemptive mission.

Think about it, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the generosity of an ordinary guy who had a donkey and a colt and was willing to make them available to Jesus. That’s the way Jesus works. Jesus can advance his kingdom in Fairfax (and any other city in the world) anyway he wants. But he chooses to ride in on the extravagant generosity of ordinary people. He rides in on the generosity of people who give their time, their talents and their money to advance the kingdom. And that’s absurd.

It’s our generosity that writes us into the story of God. Whether it’s the donkey owner, or the widow who gave her last penny, or the little boy who gave his lunch, or the guy who provided the grave in which they lay Jesus’ body, people don’t get written into the story of God because they are important. They get written in because God invites them to participate and they say “yes.” God invites you to participate in His story. And if you say “yes”, God will weave you into an amazing story that continues to be written.

Support the show

We live in a culture that is consumed by worry and anxiety. We worry about all kinds of things. We worry about our kids. We worry about our future. We worry about the next project at work or the next assignment at school. And we definitely worry about money. Will we have enough? How can we get more? How can we protect what we have?

Worry is one of the biggest barriers to living an extravagantly generous life. It doesn’t matter how much we have (or don’t have), worry can still consume us. Jesus says that worry robs us of our joy, limits God’s power and causes us to miss out on God’s provision. Worry is a warning light that reminds us of things in our life that may have taken first place in our heart. Because anything you love more than God will eventually become a source of worry and anxiety.

The opposite of worry is trust. When we trust our needs to God and see God provide, it leads to greater and greater trust. It’s a cycle of trust that quiets the constant whispers of worry that overwhelm our soul and allows us to confidently walk in God’s promised provision.

Support the show

It isn’t difficult to find evidence that there simply isn’t enough to go around. But in the narrative of Scripture we discover that was a lie that was told to deceive us from knowing the truth: that the world was created as a place of abundance and God is our generous host. When Jesus enters the world he begins living in ways that reflect his trust in the abundance of this world and the generosity of God that results in the supernatural unleashing of God’s miraculous activity. And then Jesus invites those who follow him to do the same. We become generous outwardly because we have been changed inwardly by an authentic relationship with this extravagantly generous God who willingly gave his life for us.

Genesis 2 and 3, Mark 6:33-44, malachi 3:8-10

Support the show