The constant, reliable, and permanent nature of God's steadfast love for us doesn’t depend on us returning the favor. God is extravagant beyond our understanding. The more we follow Jesus, the more we become transformed by God's blessings. When we become extravagant in our desire to share God's gifts with others, we truly discover an abundant life.

The deeper we understand God's gift to us, the higher our response rises. We become more generous because we learn to trust the giver. We begin to see giving not as something that fits into a category separate from our worship, our relationships and our time, but as part of the whole life of following Jesus.

An inheritance is a transfer of wealth to an heir on the owner’s death. Through Jesus’ atonement on the cross, we are not only children, but heirs of God’s riches. As children who have received a great gift, we realize that all that we have comes from and belongs to God.

There are five stages to the journey toward becoming generous people. The orientation of Stage 1 people is toward self. They take – they see resources as theirs to keep or give away.

The fulfillment of God’s mission isn’t a future goal, it’s has already been completed. Like a cake that has come out of the oven but is still cooking inside, God’s mission is both finished in Christ Jesus and is still cooking, soon to be ready, through our work as Christ’s disciples.

Moses felt ill-equipped to do what God asked of him. But God equips those whom God calls - and God calls each of us to join in the mission. Every disciple is an agent of God’s mission. When we understand that we’re not making up our own purpose, but we’re joining in God’s work, we are free to discover our own unique part.

Why do we talk about Christian-ish? It’s because we understand our own selves and our own tendencies. God’s mission leads us to love and build relationship, in word and action, with all people.

In the institutional model of church, we develop faith, then we join the community, then we go out into the world. But just as faith can lead to action, action can lead to faith. Often, we believe not before we see God move in the world, but as we see God move - especially when we’re the ones through whom God is moving. There is no prerequisite of faith to join the mission.

We’re not in charge. God is. The Church doesn’t do missions. Rather, God’s mission includes the church. When we follow Jesus, we as God’s people are joining in God’s mission to reconcile the world. We’re following Jesus on the Way.

God isn’t sitting on a cloud watching humanity below. In Jesus, God became one of us, and through the Holy Spirit is active in the world, changing hearts and lives. God is on mission, moving throughout the world in a desire to reconcile us to God. In other words, God is a missionary God - a missio Dei. Mission is both an attribute and a fundamental activity of God.