A Church Known for Exceptional Generosity

WELCOME
Pastor Chris Paavola:
Well, hey everybody. Good morning. Good to see you guys today. My name is Chris Paavola. I get the honor of being the senior pastor here at St. Mark and we are in the middle of a capital campaign called the Next 50 Years where we are honoring the legacy of those who went before us and the sacrifice they made to build this room and this extension of the campus. And by making a sacrifice of our own for the next 50 years. And it’s just an exciting time. It really is an exciting time at St. Mark. And what we’ve been doing over the last few weeks is just reminding ourselves of how this expansion and how this updating helps us live out our mission. Our mission is to lay down our lives so as many as possible experience Jesus, right? But also how it helps us live out our vision statements.

EXCEPTIONAL GENEROSITY
And we’ve got six different vision statements that we have as a church and we’re reminding ourselves of these, talking about them and connecting them to how does all of this that we’re doing connect to these vision statements. And so we have six of them. We’ve talked about being a church, growing in prayer. We’ve talked about being a church, the next generation calls their own. And we have talked about being a church as diverse as the city we serve. And today we’re going to talk about being a church known for exceptional generosity, a church known for exceptional generosity. And I could explain what that means, but we’ve got a group of people that can explain it better than I do and some of your friends. And so take a look at this video.

GIVING VIDEO
Speaker 1: Boy, there’s generosity and that’s your weekly giving, your tithing. Exceptional generosity is doing so in a joyful fashion above and beyond what you would normally give.

Speaker 2: I don’t think it necessarily refers to money or to time or to talents or things like that. I think it more refers to the outpouring of whatever you have. And so if God puts that on your heart, whatever that happens to be, that you should do it, you should do it fully. It should probably hurt a little bit.

Speaker 3: Our giving today keeps the church going on an even keel on a daily basis or a yearly basis, but we need exceptional giving to meet our need here.

Speaker 4: Generosity in itself, right, is doing something without the expectation of anything in return. But when you add that word, exceptional generosity takes it to that next level.

Speaker 5: Sacrificial is going above and beyond. We might have to sacrifice something to do that. Maybe we’ve got give up taking a trip somewhere or just something that we sacrifice so that we may give to God.

Speaker 6: We don’t bat an eye when we’re like, oh, I deserve coffee this morning. Instead of like, so how many days can you give up your coffee and donate? So I mean, I think you could think in terms of that because I know I’ve gotten creative of, again, going back to that, what can I give up? But when you’re looking at the big picture and you mentioned thousands of dollars, you’re like, oh, I need that. But when you break it apart, you can do it. It’s an achievable goal.

Speaker 7: Today I was thinking about how I want a new set of golf clubs. I want to trade in my old golf clubs and get a new set, and then it just hit me that stuff is going to rust. Those golf clubs are going to just hit balls into water. They’re not going to benefit the kingdom of God.

Speaker 8: Am I giving out of comfort or am I giving what’s easy to give or am I truly giving out of the blessings that he has given me?

Speaker 6: What I would say to encourage others to that are looking to give for the next 50 years, I would encourage them to just take the time to really think about what they see in the future and what they want this church to be and how God is going to use them to turn this church into what we want it to become. It’s a different form of investment because if we invest in the future of our church, we’re going to see our faith grow and we’re going to see those needs being taken care of. And there’s a level of trust that is hard sometimes to think about.

Speaker 7: I would encourage someone to think about eternity when they’re preparing their gift, when they’re thinking about what they’re going to give. Think about what that money is going to do for the kingdom of heaven eternally. Store up treasures not on earth where moth and vermin destroy, store up treasures in heaven,

Speaker 8: Pray with that specific prayer and just have that conversation with God. What do you want me to give? And listen and listen. Because we as humans will tend to barter with God and say, oh, well yeah, but we really just listen.

Speaker 3: Who made all the sacrifices for us? Let’s take into consideration the sacrifice that God made and Jesus made for us. And so we have to take that into consideration. Have that in the back of your mind either. Let’s be thankful for everything we have is glory be to God.

$2 MILLION IN PROJECTS

LOBBY RENOVATION

CAFÉ RENOVATION

LOBBY EXPANSION

NEW CANOPY

NEW ASPHALT

NEW BALCONY

MULTIPURPOSE ROOM RENOVATION

Pastor Chris Paavola:
Amen. Everything we have. Amen. So over the next three years, just to bring everyone up to speed, if you haven’t heard yet, we are asking a hundred percent of the people of St. Mark’s. If you’re a guest, we’re not expecting you guys to be a part of this, but if you’re a part of St. Mark, if this is your church home, we’re asking you to make a three-year commitment above and beyond our regular ties and offerings so that we are able to raise the $2 million that we feel like we can raise to be able to do some of these projects. And people have asked me like, Hey, wait, there’s a long list here. What can we afford with this first 2 million? What we wanted to make sure that we have a longer vision so we aren’t doing something that will impede what we want to do later and to just have a bigger picture in mind, but also giving God room to work.

But we know with $2 million we can afford a lobby renovation and a cafe renovation out there to just modernize it, but also then push it out about 18 to 20 feet and east there. So we have a lot more room for getting together and whatnot. And that means also then we would be moving our car overhang canopy thing. And then also we would have to, because we’d be cutting into the parking lot, we’d have to redo the parking lot and that’s a good time to take care of the parking lot that is already aging and used by 2000 cars every week. And then also included in that would be a new bout just seating up there, like a terrorist seating style of 50 seats so we can continue to have space and then to grow. And then also the multipurpose room where our kids are right now, fourth grade and under.

But then our youth uses that every night. And then our world for children school uses that every weekday. And so that’s a space that it’s a shared space, but it’s a space that we really need to make sure we give attention to, hasn’t been touched in about 50 years or so. And so all of those things add together, and that’s really what our hope is for this. Now I know what happens. You see that number $2 million and there are a group of people in this room that instantly like God puts on your heart like, oh, I could give an IRA or I could give my 401k or these new stocks that I’ve got, or I could give my stamp collection or baseball cards and liquidate that and give that to the church. And awesome. You immediately think of a number that you can give or maybe God has blessed you with the cash on hands to be able to make a dent in that number. And we thank God for that. There’s another group of people though that I want to talk to today. It’s the group of people. When you hear that number $2 million, you go, well, I don’t have that kind of money. That’s who I want to talk to you today because listen, okay, generosity is not reserved for the wealthy.

I DON’T HAVE THAT KIND OF MONEY
You can always afford love. And today I want to talk to you guys about I know you see that number. It seems so daunting and paralyzing, that big number, and I don’t have that kind of money. And I want to talk to you today about a principle of giving that’s actually demonstrated in the text we just heard in the life of Jesus. And it’s a teaching of Jesus. And when we look at this and apply it to our lives, it not only frees us up for a life of generosity and abundance in the every day, but specifically for this campaign. And I think it’s liberating. I think it’s a really powerful concept that you can apply in your life. So let’s look at this together and then we’ll kind of talk about applying it. So, it’s from Mark 6 where Mark is a first century follower of Jesus.

FEEDING THE 5,000
And he records in his biography that there are large crowds following Jesus. That’s kind of the setup, large crowds, 5,000 plus. And Jesus is so captivating, he’s so magnetic, so enigmatic that when he talks, it’s just like time fades away. And these people are like, they leave their homes, they leave their jobs and they just follow Jesus because they don’t want to miss a word that he says or am miss something that he does. And so they just keep following him and they won’t stop following him as long as he’s talking. And the disciples are like, we have an issue on hand here that people are going to start fainting. This is becoming a medical concern. They aren’t eating because you keep talking. Please stop talking so that they can go get some food. And we see this in Mark 6, verse 36, send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat. And then Jesus says, you give them something to eat.

36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”  

37 But Jesus answered, “You give them something to eat.” Thy disciples said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” Mark 6

There’s so much going on here. What he does is he takes this phrase that they have and he flips it on them. They say they need something to eat. And so he says, you give them something to eat, and instantly they’re like them, all of them. He says something, say something.

Response: Something.

Pastor Chris Paavola: Okay, that’s different than everything. Say everything.

Response: Everything

Pastor Chris Paavola: He says something, they hear everything and they’re like, are you kidding me right now? And they immediately go logical. Look, next verse, the disciples say to him, “that would take more than a half a year’s wages. Are we going to go spend all our money on bread and give it to them to eat?” That does not seem like a wise investment. Jesus, even if we had enough money, we have to go to multiple villages because no one has that much bread for 5,000 people. This is crazy. We don’t have $2 million. We don’t have that kind of money.

38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” Mark 6

And then I kind of picture Jesus having this face palm moment where he rubs his temples and sighs like a mom who has to wash a pair of jeans twice, okay? And then he simply looks at them and says, “how many loaves do you have?” Say have.

Response: Have.

Pastor Chris Paavola: What do you have? Go and see. And what he’s trying to do is raise their minds and raise their eyes from scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset, from the natural to the supernatural, from impossibility to possibility is like, so what do you have? Not what do you need? What do you have? And so they take some baskets and start walking through the crowd. And we got food.

Anyone got Cheerios? Goldfish? I had goldfish in the first service. Anyone got goldfish? What do we got here? Ri, what do we got? Do you have any food? Okay, we’ll take that. Yep, that works. It’s chicken. Oh, we’ve got a granola bar. Awesome. Okay, anyone got mints? We okay? Got some. Here we go. Anyone over here? A cup of water? We will take that. Yeah. Okay, we’ll take a cup of water. Very good. Anyone else? No one has Cheerios. Moms goldfish. No, no. Oh, what do you want? Oh, fruit snacks. I’ll take these for myself. Anyone else? Oh, are Hershey’s. You just carry these around. Wow. Okay. And then some cough drops. Well that’ll do. We can make that work. So they’ve got fruit snacks, granola bars, cough, drop, breath, mint. And they’re like, all right, here you go.

WHEN THEY BRING JESUS WHAT THEY HAVE HE MULTIPLIES IT FOR WHAT THEY NEED
That’s what we have. And it looks comical, doesn’t it? I mean, you got so little and the need is so great, but then Jesus takes what they bring him, he blesses it and multiplies it. And I think the light bulb is starting to come on for some of us this morning. They bring him what they have because when you bring Jesus what you have, he multiplies it for what you need. And then I love this verse. It’s actually a very short verse. You can memorize it. Mark 6: 42, “they all ate and were satisfied.” It’s beautiful.

42 They all ate and were satisfied. Mark 6

It’s not what you don’t have my friends. It’s what you do have. What do you have? Not what does the person next to you have? What do you have? And when you bring it to Jesus, he multiplies it and does the miraculous.

LANE KASPER
I see this happen all the time. In fact, I just saw this happen last week. So we say we are a church. The next generation calls their own. So because we’re in this campaign, we said, well, our kids should invest in their future. They’re the ones that are going to be using us. We might not be here, but our kids will be here. And so the kids fourth grade and under, we gave them all these little coin boxes that they’re collecting coins in. They’re turning them in this morning and next week we’re going to have all of their coins up here on the altar to kind of inspire us by their giving.

They gave what they have. And then our youth ministry. So fifth grade and up, we said, okay, you guys, you’re challenged to come up with creative ways to just raise money and you can put it in the envelopes that we have. And then you just bring that next week on commitment Sunday and you’re challenged with this. And so kids are doing things like lawn mowing and baking things. And one kid named Lane went home and he’s like, well, what do I have? And he’s looking through the pantry and he found a bunch of lemons. So he started squeezing them with just a little bit of water and lemons and some cups of sugar. He decided he was going to have a lemonade stand and he wanted to raise a hundred dollars. And his mom was like, oh geez, okay.

He didn’t raise a hundred dollars, okay, because he raised $538 in a lemonade stands. And then he was like, mom, do I have to give all of this to the church? Seriously? And she’s like, yes, yes. And he’s like, can I have another lemonade? Stand for an Xbox? And she’s like, I don’t know if it’ll make people as excited to give anyway, but so he’s going to give a $538 gift to the church next week. Wow, awesome. It’s so awesome. I love it. He didn’t think about the $2 million. He just thought about what he has. He wanted to do something and God multiplied it. And that’s going to happen again, my friends. So we know with this campaign for $2 million, we know that you can do the math, right? Number of households we have, what’s our annual giving? What is a reasonable number that we can set that this is what we’re going to raise, right?

You can do that math real easy and when you multiply it out and you go, okay, $2 million, next slide please. We know that this is the types of gifts we’ll get. We know that God has put it on the heart of somebody in the congregation to give $400,000 because I believe this is where God is leading us. We know God has put it on somebody’s heart to give $200,000. We know God has put it on their heart to get for somebody to give a hundred thousand dollars. And we know God has put in somebody’s heart to give $75,000 and we praise God for that. But the majority of the gifts come below that. There’s a handful of people that will give fifty, thirty five, twenty ten seven, and there’s a handful of households that will give 5,000 or less. But you know enough this morning that it’s not, you give in proportion to what you have received, not into proportion of the need, not in proportion to what others have received. No. You give what you have received.

CONSISTENCY IN GIVING
What do I have? And I know $5,000 seems like a lot, but that’s why this is not a one-time campaign. This is a three year effort of the church. This is a marathon, not a sprints. We are committing to this together. And there is a lot that can happen when you take that gift that you want to give or that when you take what you have and you do it consistently, in the words of Bruce Lee, consistency beats intensity. Or he would say it. Consistency beats intensity. So let me give you some examples. That was terrible. I don’t know if you don’t watch Kung Fu, that made no sense to you. But anyway, so if you give a $10 gift, if that’s what you have right now, I can give $10 right now, and you do that once a month for three years, you can give a $360 gift. I’m just not going to go to Starbucks once a month so I can be a part of what God is doing in this church. You do that and you gave a $300 gift to the church, you double that. It’s a $720 gift.

I was talking to somebody and they’re like, they were doing the math and they added up all of their subscription services that were driving them nuts, ESPN plus Hulu, paramount plus HBO plus Disney Plus, and they’re like, this is out of control. They’re canceling them and taking that $50 a month they would’ve spent on tv. They’re not watching and just giving that once a month for the next three years, and they’re giving an $1,800 gift, nearly $2,000 gift to the church. Praise God. I was talking to somebody else, legitimately a person sitting in the room right now who was going to get a new car. They didn’t like the one they have. I’m serious. And they were like, okay, wait. You know what? I’m just going to wait three years. I’m not going to get a car for three years. Not because this one’s going to break, but just I just don’t like it. Okay, fine. I’ll just drive it for three more years and take what I would’ve spent in a car payment and give it to the church. Invest in God’s kingdom with that, and they’re giving an $18,000 gift to the church. It’s car payment.

When you get creative and you get open to, okay, God, what do I have of, he multiplies it and does the incredible He does. And that’s what I’m asking you to do. And actually this changes the prayer. We’ve been praying this prayer every week, God, what do you want me to give to the next 50 years? But today I’d like to amend that addendum and add the word consistently. So will you pray those words with me? God, what do you want me to consistently give to the next 50 years? What do you have? And then bring it next week, commitment Sunday, we’ll be taking pledges. Don’t bring your money yet. We’re just taking pledges so we can add that up and figure everything out. Commitment Sunday, you’ll come and you’ll bring your pledge and put it actually in this exact same basket, and you’re going to watch the little that you bring combined with the generosity of the people sitting around you, and this basket’s going to start overflowing. The Lord will multiply it because I believe, and I know that when you bring God, what you have, when you bring Jesus what you have, he multiplies it for what you need.

And we are going to rejoice in your gift. And just like the people sitting on a hillside or a little boy who, 12-year-old boy who had a lemonade stand, we’re going to see God fulfill his word. We are, I know it because he’s the guy who provides, they all aids and we’re satisfied is the guy who provides the breath in your lungs. He gives you your daily bread. He’s the God who provides his son to die, our death in our place. He’s the God who rises from the grave that he may provide us eternal life.

PRAYER
Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, we love you so much, and I pray specifically just for the people in this room, the people watching online, or the people who hear the sound of my voice that you would show us. What do we have? Open our eyes, God, to drive into our garage and see, truly, see what we have, how much we have to look in our wardrobe, in our closets, and see how many clothes we truly have to look in our pantries and see how much food we truly have. How greatly you have blessed us. Oh God, forgive us for our unwillingness to share God and just open our eyes to see what we have, that we may bring a portion to you, that you may fulfill your word and bless it and multiply it, that we all may be satisfied and we pray. Now, the prayer your Son taught us to pray, that acknowledges that you give us even our daily bread. You give us everything we need. As we say, our Father, who arts in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.