Generosity and God's Grace

Well, good morning, everybody. Welcome to church today. My name is Rene, one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. And also, I want to welcome everybody who is joining us, watching us over in the venue services and on TLC.org and Facebook Live every week. We have more and more people joining us live in every one of our services on Facebook, which is kind of a cool thing.

This weekend, we are starting our big new fall series called Richer Life. So what is this all about? Well, here's how this all started. One day, I was sprinting to catch a plane at set. I don't know why I don't leave more margin when I'm catching planes. But I was, as usual, sprinting to catch a plane when I suddenly realized my worst fears had come true. I was on my way to catch a plane. It was going to be a long flight, and I had nothing to read.

And I was desperate because I don't know if you're like me, but I always, always have reading material right next to me. There's a pile of books on my nightstand. There's a pile of books in my kitchen, in my living room, at my office. I've always got to have something to read at all times. So here, I was about to be stuck on a plane without a book. I'm not afraid of flying. I'm afraid of flying without a book. That's my fear.

So I dashed into the newsstand. And to be honest, I was going for a thriller or something like that, some light reading. But then I stopped, and my attention was caught by something I'd never before considered in-flight reading material, the Harvard Business Review Digest. And I grabbed it, and the first article is what just riveted me. Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen wrote this article about how as a professor at Harvard Business School, he was getting so discouraged because he would see his students come back after decades of teaching, year after year for their reunions, successful, but unhappy, often estranged from their children, more often than not divorced, and completely unfulfilled.

And he says that is why he has completely changed his tactic during the last week of every single semester of the class he teaches, which is one of the last classes that Harvard Business School students take. He spends the last week saying to the students, congratulations on completing your education here at Harvard Business School. Everything you have learned is going to make you successful if you apply it, and nothing you have learned will make you happy.

He said to be happy, you've got to orient your life in a slightly different direction. Listen to this quote. He quotes tons of research to his students that the most satisfying long-term motivator in life actually isn't making money. It's the opportunity to contribute to others. Now, this is not a pastor talking here. This is not an evangelist. This is not your grandma. This is a professor at Harvard Business School saying the research shows—and in this article, he showed study after study that showed if you want to be happy, if you want to be fulfilled, if you want to lead a truly rich life, it's not about accumulation. It's about contribution.

In other words, to use a biblical word, generosity. And I read that article, and I decided in that moment, let's do a whole series of Twin Lakes Church on generosity as a lifestyle because that leads to a richer life. So grab your message notes that look like this. Let's start kicking this off today. Now, I realize as I say this, I am talking to a group here today that is one of the most generous groups of people I know on the planet, honestly.

One of the first things I say about Twin Lakes Church when people ask me, what do you like most about Twin Lakes Church, the generosity of the people. And I want you to know that giving to Twin Lakes Church has never been higher. Literally this year, it's never been higher in the history of the church. So I am not doing a series on generosity because this church needs to shape up, OK? I'm doing this series because as your pastor, I want you to see how woven through the whole Bible this theme is.

And I really want to have your imagination captured by what the Bible says about generous living. Now, I want to address something right at the start here. Generosity, when I say that, when the Bible says that, it does not just mean money. Money is a small part of what the Bible means when it talks about generosity. You could be generous with your time, your love, your forgiveness, your smile, your encouragement.

In fact, would you agree with me, those are some of the most important ways to be generous? Because somebody could be generous with their money, but very stingy with their smile, very stingy with their love. And somebody might have money, but if they don't have love, if they don't have forgiveness, if they don't have encouragement from friends, they're going to be miserable. So most of this Richer Life series, I just want to put you at ease here. I'm actually not going to be talking about money at all.

We're going to be talking about relational generosity, and hospitality generosity, and forgiveness generosity. And today as we launch this series, I really want you to see why I think this is so important. How the Bible talks about this so much. So today I want to look at five biblical promises about generosity there on page one of your notes. And then page two this morning, I'm going to talk about, okay, if that's why I should do this, how do I do this? How do I live generously?

So jot these down. Number one, the Bible says, generosity increases my happiness. The apostle Paul quotes Jesus in Acts 20:35. Our master said, you're far happier giving than getting. Now we've all heard that, right? It's more blessed to give than receive. Is that really true? Check this out. University of Notre Dame now has an entire research department devoted to studying generosity. This is fascinating.

They found in study after study, scientific research, generous people are happier, healthier, less depressed. Not only that, generous people have lower blood pressure, reduced stress, longer life spans. Not only that, generous people have better moods, better marriages, more friends. Isn't that amazing? Yet it's exactly what the Bible's been saying for 2000 years. A generous life leads to a richer life experience.

Second, generosity refreshes my spirit. Doesn't that sound good to have your spirit refreshed? Well, Proverbs 11:25 says, and let's read this verse out loud together. A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. What does that mean? Look at this, Harvard University, back at Harvard again. One of their researchers, Dr. Michael Norton, did a fascinating study. His team gave away free money. The average amount was $500 during one of the rush weeks at Harvard.

And they gave it to all kinds, they gave it to individuals, they gave it to athletic teams, they gave it to sales teams, administrative teams at Harvard. Wouldn't you love to be in that experiment, by the way? The free money experiment? Something tells me that if Harvard called me, I wouldn't be in the free money experiment. I'd be in like the electroshock endurance experiment or something like that.

But in the free money experiment, here's what they did. They divided people into two groups. The first group, they told them, you can spend the money however you want as long as you spend it on yourself, only on yourself. Sounds pretty good, right? And the second group was told, you can spend it however you want as long as you spend it only on somebody else and not yourself. That was the only difference between the two groups.

Now watch this, after about a month of this, in case after case, when people gave the money away, they felt substantially happier than the people who spent it on themselves. Now maybe you'd expect that. But more than that, their performance improved in statistically remarkable ways. Sales people made more sales. Sports teams won on average 25% more of their games and dominated their leagues. And on and on. He says the results were so amazing, they were almost incredible. Generosity left people feeling refreshed and energized. It leads to a richer life.

Third, generosity brings blessing. Now there are hundreds of these verses in the Bible. Here's just one, Proverbs 22:9, and let's read this out loud together again. The generous will themselves be blessed. Now what does that mean, blessed? It's a deep sense of happiness and joy. I saw this in person in living color several times, but let me tell you about one of the most delicious meals I've ever enjoyed in my life.

It was not in a fancy four star restaurant. It was served by some of the poorest people I have ever met in the poorest country I have ever visited in my life. Paul Spurlock, our missions pastor, and I were visiting the second poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. Number one is Haiti, that's the poorest. The second poorest is Nicaragua. I couldn't believe it, I took pictures through our little truck window because the roads were dirt, carts drawn by cars, far, far outnumbered cars, carts drawn by cows that is.

Nobody had electricity, nobody had phone lines, sewage lines, but for lunch, these people that we were visiting in one of the poorest villages in this poor country took two other chickens and cooked them in a kiln that had been made for firing bricks along with all kinds of veggies, cooked them in two big, giant cast iron skillets for hours. It really was the most delicious meal I'd had in years.

And Paul and I, realizing how much this must have cost them and how little they had said, of course, Twin Lakes Church would like to thank you and we'd like to pay you back for what you have spent on hosting us. Now what do you think they said? They were almost offended. And here's what they said, and I've heard this more than once in similar situations. They said, "Do you want to rob us of our joy?" They said, "We have so little means to give joy to other people, this has given our village rich joy. Don't take our joy from us." And they meant it. Generous living brings blessing, even if your means are limited. It brings a richer life experience.

Next, and this one fascinates me, generosity expands my influence. It expands my influence. Look at this Psalm, Psalm 112:9. Those who share freely and give generously to the poor, they will have what? Influence and honor, circle influence. Listen, we Christians are looking for ways to influence the world, right? And sociologists call it a post-Christian society that we live in right now. People, you see it in the news, they're not exactly predisposed to think highly of Christians, right? And sometimes I don't blame them.

So how can we influence the world for Christ? Not by being judgmental, by being generous to the poor. That's what gets their attention. It's not why we should do it, but it's one of the benefits of being generous to the poor. And it's always been this way, I wanna show you something. This is one of the earliest scenes that we have of early Christians. This is painted on one of the catacombs in Rome. Rodney Stark is the name of a professor at the University of Washington, who's become an expert on early Christians.

Specifically his field is, why did early Christianity survive and grow in the Roman Empire? I mean, they had everything stacked against them, right? But their growth rate just exploded. So he wanted to know why. And he says, it basically comes down to one factor, generosity. He says, here's the way it happened. Plagues would rip through the cities of the ancient Roman Empire. And the healthy Romans would flee to the countryside, leaving the sick with nobody to care for them, except Christians.

The Christians stayed unafraid of death because of their belief in the resurrection. And when some of the sick they tended got better, they said, well, we wanna be one of those people and they would convert. And we actually have some ancient Roman letters that these ancient Roman citizens wrote about their conversions that have survived. And they're fascinating. Let me just tell you one of them. True story written by a man named Pachomius. Long before Christianity became legal, he was imprisoned as a young man for something that he did in a cell like this in a Roman prison.

A sudden epidemic raced through the region that he lived in. As usual, the Roman jailers took off to save their own skins, leaving all the prisoners to starve 'cause they were locked behind bars. But then the prisoners realized that strangers were showing up at night, wearing hooded cloaks, slipping food through the prison bars. And night after night, these mysterious strangers returned and Pachomius and all of his friends in prison survived.

When he gets out, he becomes a Roman soldier, a legionnaire. But the question burns in his mind for years, who were those hooded people and why did they help us? Once he gets out of the army, he goes back to the village where he was in prison, he starts asking people and he starts to find answers. They say that those midnight visitors, oh, we know who they are. They're a group of people known as the Galileans or the followers of the way. They have a third name, people call them Christians.

Pachomius finds out where the Christians are secretly meeting and he eventually becomes a Christian himself. And this former legionnaire becomes a leader in the early church and the owner of a great beard. Just look at that. I mean, I am jealous of that beard. But Pachomius' experience is just one of thousands of similar stories. The generosity of the Christians is what broke through and expanded their influence. And you know what the more generous this church is to the poor, the more our influence in Santa Cruz County will be expanded.

People in Santa Cruz County do not care about my sermons. They really don't. They care about this church giving to the poor. That's what's going to get attention and that's what's going to expand our influence as it should. And then finally, Jesus said, "Generosity will be rewarded in heaven because it honors God." Luke 16:9, your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven. And not just huge acts of generosity either. He says, "Even if you just give a cup of cold water, anything, you're going to be rewarded for that." So I mean, look at this list on page one. That's a richer life. It is so worthwhile to devote time to studying this.

So I really want to encourage you. Grab a Richer Life book when you leave today. And by the way, I don't make any money off of this. Once in a while, I hear people say, "Well, you write these books." Listen, all these books are just a gift to me. They're just a gift to the church. All the proceeds go to the church and we really want you to have one of these. Some people last night didn't believe me, but I really mean it when I say that the books are at tables outside.

If you want to donate five bucks to help cover the cost of the book, you can. But if you don't have it with you or if secretly you're like, "I don't know if it's worth five bucks. That's a lot of money. I'm going to take it and read it and then give what I think it's worth, like 450 or whatever it is." Seriously, just grab a book as you walk past. Don't even slow down. Just take one and go because I really want every single person here to have one of these.

Day one is tomorrow. We'll literally be on the same page as we read these daily devotions. They each have scripture and a prayer and some meditative thoughts that I wrote. And they all tie into small group material that's in the back of the book, small group discussion questions and also generosity projects you'll be hearing about all throughout the series. It's just designed to be an immersive experience so that we can all just dig into this.

And I encourage you, sign up for a small group today if you're not in one already at tlc.org/richerlife and you will definitely have a richer experience during the fall. Now, I'm excited about this because again, think of all these benefits. Think of all the people here at Twin Lakes Church. Think of all the lives that can be enriched. Think of all the influence in our neighborhoods that could be expanded.

However, there is a potential problem and this is a huge one. This is a massive blind spot that most of us have when it comes to generosity. And this major potential problem could eliminate every one of the benefits that you just saw. And it's this, unless my generosity is rooted in something deeper than me, it will drain me and not enrich me because the need out there will always be a thousand times greater than your ability to meet it, right? And if you're just all about, I gotta be more generous to that need, that need, that need, that need, or am I being generous enough? You are going to become bitter and burned out.

Let me tell you a story. Just a couple years ago, Invisible Children was the kind of the hot charity rescuing Ugandan children from warlord Joseph Kony. Really great cause, really great. But at the height of his fame, the founder of Invisible Children, Jason Russell, suddenly had a complete mental emotional breakdown. Jason made the news in ways that nobody ever wants to make the news. Running around the streets of Los Angeles, completely unclothed, screaming at the top of his lungs. Just lost it.

Why? Well, he now says, as a Christian, he was a Christian then too, he now says that his charity work was not rooted in something deeper than him. And this is not me judging him. This is what he says of himself, watch this. I was listening to the ego more than the spirit. Wow. I made no provision for how to navigate achieving inner spiritual peace and tranquility. And because his generosity wasn't rooted in something or someone deeper than just the need, he became burned out and embittered. And truthfully, I have been there too.

And this is exactly why I cringe when I hear what passes for messages on generosity in many, many churches. Because I hear pastors say things like, give until it hurts. I hate that, who does anything because it hurts, right? You got deeper problems if that's the way, that's the reason you do anything. Or this is a little bit more subtle, let God use you. I believe we should allow God to use us. But if that's where the speakers stop, eventually their listeners will say to themselves, yeah, God used me all right. He used me up. And now I'm drained and I'm embittered and I'm burned out.

So you can't make that mistake. You can't root your generosity just in, I looked at all those benefits, so I'm gonna try super, super hard to be generous so I can get all those benefits and I can get God's blessing. That's gonna kill you. And so these closing few minutes are so important. How do I live generously? How do I find radical yet sustainable generosity? In this series, we're going to zero in on eight passages from the Gospel of Luke, one each week, and this first one from Luke 18.

This is actually not a teaching about generosity at all. This is a teaching about the foundation for everything else that we're going to say in this series. And if you miss this foundation, you will misunderstand everything that follows. I wanna tell you the story of the way Jesus told it and then make three quick observations. Luke 18, starting in verse nine. To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, robbers and evildoers and adulterers or even like this tax collector over here. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn't even look up to heaven, but he beat his breast and he said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I tell you, this man rather than the other went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Now stop right there for a second, because in this passage you see three things that are so important for radical yet sustainable generosity. And if you don't get these things, you could be headed for that bitterness that follows a season of generosity.

First, you see the source of generosity. I love this ancient sixth century Christian mosaic about this parable. Two people in this parable, technically only one of them was generous. Which one? Well, the Pharisee. The Pharisees tried to perfectly keep all the commandments in the Bible, and that means by definition they tithed. They gave a tenth of everything they owned, and not just their cash, they'd even give their spices and herbs.

Like if a Pharisee grew a little mint plant on the deck of his house, he'd figure out what a tenth of the mint plant was, and he would snip off a tenth of the leaves and he would give those mint leaves to the temple treasury. I mean, they were scrupulous. On the other hand, there was a tax collector, and tax collectors were notorious. The way it worked, you might know this, the Roman government outsourced tax collection. They sold the franchise for collecting taxes to the highest bidder, and they said, all right, you go get Roman taxes from your people.

And you know how those tax collectors were paid? Well, by the markup. Just like retail. The Romans told them, you just give us the tax owed us, and you can charge whatever profit margin you think you can get on top of the tax as your salary. And so, like anybody in retail, right, the tax collectors, since they had a monopoly, would add a double digit percentage profit on top of the Roman Empire's tax, 'cause they had no competition. They could charge whatever they wanted, and so they got filthy rich, they hoarded it all themselves, and they were hated.

So of the two people in this parable, the Pharisee is the one keeping all the rules about tithing and generosity. And the tax collector is the greedy jerk. And Jesus says, be like the tax collector. What? Why? Here's the point of the parable. When it comes to generosity, it's not about my wallet, but my heart. Do you see that here? It's not about my wallet, but my heart. The Pharisee is technically being generous with money, but radically ungenerous in spirit, self-righteous, focused on himself, all that he does.

The tax collector, technically ungenerous, but developing a radically generous spirit, because he's starting to realize his dependence on the generosity of God. Okay, so if we're not supposed to look like the Pharisee, and if the tax collector's sort of a work in progress, what are we supposed to look like ideally? Point two, let's look at the picture of radical but sustainable generosity. It may surprise you. Very next verse. People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to put his hands on them. But when the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. Get away with your kids.

But Jesus called the children to him and said, let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly, I tell you, whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. I love this image of Jesus and the children from a medieval Bible. Don't you love this? Here's the Messiah of the world, and he's not hobnobbing with VIPs. He's giving his time to little kids who can't help him politically.

They have no clout. They have nothing to give him. They're under no illusions. They have anything to give to him, to provide for him. But he's so generous. In a way that means something to these kids. He's generous with his time, and with his attention, and with his love. And there's so many things that shows me. For one thing, and this isn't in your notes, but jot this down. There's more than one currency. There's more than one currency. We tend to only think about dollars, but you can be generous with your time.

Time meant more to these little kids than dollars. Generous with your forgiveness. Generous with your hospitality. Generous with giving people the benefit of the doubt. And so, so much more. I'll tell you a story. Some of you know how when I was in college, I lived in a house downtown on 12th Street in San Jose when I was going to San Jose State. And eight of us Christian guys rented this house together. Side note, if you're a homeowner, never rent your house to eight college-age males. Just don't do it.

But we had a good time in the house, and living right next door to us was about a 16-year-old boy named Robert Bronkowski. He lived with his grandparents next door to us. Now Robert was very, very small for his age, and Robert had Down's syndrome, but his symptoms were extremely severe. In fact, he didn't really even speak. Didn't say hardly any words. And he didn't know how to write. And once in a while, we would invite him over to our house. He loved just hanging over with us anyway. I think he thought we were cool. Maybe we were compared to his grandparents.

And so he would hang out at our house. And one night we had him over for spaghetti, all eight of us, and we decided we'd start to teach him how to say, how to write his own name, Robert Bronkowski. I mean, that is really a handful, right, for anybody. But first he said, "I can't do it, I can't, no, no, no, no, no." We said, "No, you can do it, you can do it." We took a pencil and taught him how to write the words, and he would practice and not get it right, and practice and not get it right. And then one night, he wrote it out with no errors, Robert Bronkowski, and we cheered, and we put him on our shoulders, and we paraded with him around the kitchen, and he laughed and laughed and laughed.

And a couple of times after that, he would race over to our house if he saw that somebody was home with a piece of paper, that's Robert Bronkowski, because we'd cheer again and get all happy. One day, a girl that I'd been going out with, that I thought I was in love with, broke up with me, and I was completely devastated. And I came home, and nobody was home in my house, and I just sat on the front stoop in downtown San Jose, and I just put my head in my hands and I just wept. I mean, I felt brokenhearted.

And Robert came rushing over, and he skidded to a halt as he saw me just crying. And he looked at me, and he just blinked. And then he raced back to his house, and I thought, even Robert has abandoned me, and I just started crying even more. About a half an hour goes by, and Robert comes back with a piece of paper that's been folded twice, and he hands it to me, and he sits down next to me, and he just puts his arm on my shoulder. And I kind of sigh, and I open up the piece of paper. It's an eight and a half by 11 sheet of typing paper, and written all over it is Robert Bronkowski. Robert Bronkowski, Robert Bronkowski.

It was the best sympathy card I have ever received in my life, it really was. Because Robert was using the only currency he had, and yet it was perfect for my need. There's more than one currency. You may not be able to give a lot of money, but can you give what Robert gave? Can you put your arm around somebody? Can you give them the comfort they need? Can you give them the attention, the encouragement that they need? That is precious currency.

But you know, there's something else that Robert taught me. Jesus says, "The kingdom of God belongs to such as these." And you know that the writer of this Gospel, Luke, as he was editing this, he put this story right after the story about the Pharisee to show the difference. Now some of you are thinking, how are little kids a good example of generosity? They're the most notoriously selfish human beings I know. Well, in some ways in our culture, we're at a disadvantage to understanding this.

Think about what the culture of Jesus was like. How do I do that? Well, it helps when you think about traveling to cultures that are more agrarian, maybe more like the culture of Jesus, like the countries we go to on TLC outreach trips, missions trips. One comment almost everybody who goes on a mission trip makes is how happy the kids are there. Though they have very, very little, and this is true all over the world, they're happy playing with whatever they happen to have at hand, a stick or an old can.

They relish little things and they live in wonder at the world. And I think this sense of wonder is one aspect of childhood Jesus must be talking about. The joy that very little kids tend to have in life. And to me right now, it feels like it would be very appropriate at this point to talk about my grandson, Freddy. Because I haven't talked about him in a long time. He's been killing me here. But one of the things I love to do is just follow Freddy around with my camera and watch how in awe he is of the world, how he brushes his fingers against flower petals. When's the last time you did that? It's a pretty cool thing to do, by the way. I've done it since I've seen Freddy do it.

And he loves rocks. And the other day he was fascinated by the miracle of opening and closing doors. He literally stood at one of the closets for like an hour and just went open, shut, open, shut, open, shut. This is amazing, right? And that wonder is something of what Jesus means here. And I think there's something else he's driving at. Little kids know they're dependent. They need grownups to do anything. They can't even reach the faucet to get a drink. And Jesus is saying, live in childlike wonder and dependence on God. And that's the complete opposite of the Pharisee, isn't it?

And that's why we're going to spend weeks in this richer life series, just learning to do this, to live in childlike wonder at God's grace. Because if your generosity is sourced in that, it's got an infinite well to draw from. But if it's sourced in your own energy and sense of obligation, it is just not sustainable. And that leads right to the final point. What's the key to real radical but sustainable generosity? Go back a couple of verses to that tax collector's words. God have what? Mercy on me, a sinner, huge.

The Pharisee thought he deserved God's approval, right? He'd earned it. The tax collector knew he deserved nothing. Here's how key this is. There's fascinating research being done at UC Davis by a guy named Dr. Robert Emmons, who I've had the privilege of meeting. Research on happiness, what makes life rich? Dr. Emmons has become the world's leading expert on happiness. And he says there is one personality trait that all truly happy people have. They often don't have anything else in common, but they've got this in common.

He said it's like a strand of their psychological DNA, and it runs through every truly happy person. You wanna know what it is? Might be counterintuitive for you. He says the key is to believe I deserve nothing. I deserve nothing. I don't deserve anything from God. Life doesn't owe me anything. I don't deserve one more breath. Now again, this isn't a pastor saying this. This is a UC researcher. You're going to be hearing a lot more about this next weekend 'cause we're going to be talking about gratitude.

But listen to how he finishes this quote. He says, "If you go around thinking life owes me something or people owe me something or I deserve this, you will certainly not feel grateful because after all you had it coming." Happy, grateful people believe life owes me nothing. All the good I have is a gift. My very eyes are a gift. So is my spouse, my freedom, my job, my every breath. Do you get that? This is why when the tax collector says, "Have mercy on me, a sinner," Jesus says, "That's it! He's got it!"

The Pharisee has an attitude of entitlement. I deserve it 'cause I have worked so hard. The tax collector realizes, no, it's all mercy. This is why this is the foundation. Don't start the series going, okay, those are all those rewards for being generous. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this and be nice to my neighbor. I'm gonna be so generous that God's just gonna have to enrich my life with all those benefits 'cause I had it coming to me. Too much focus on self.

Think instead of God's generosity, which is another word for grace, lavished on you though you are undeserving. Generosity God showed ultimately on the cross. Jesus left his throne and became poor so we could be enriched in every way. And then what happens is your generosity is just overflowed. It's a reaction to the initial action of God's lavish grace toward you. See, here's the bottom line. To be radically yet sustainably generous, I must soak in the radical, undeserved, generosity of God toward me and realize it's all grace. And that's the path to the richer life.

Let's ask God for his blessings on this series. Let's pray together. Lord, we wanna say this morning like the second man, we need you totally to thank you for your grace. We're breathing because of your grace. We're here in this place because of your grace. We're saved because of your grace. We have any abilities we have by your grace. Help us revel in that now and forever, not focused on what I have to do or what I am doing, but on what you have done for me. And then help that to overflow with grace to others. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.