Closer to God: Living Generously (Randy)

In this lesson, we continue our Closer to God series by exploring generosity as a whole-life response to God’s love. Building on last week’s discussion of financial generosity, we’ll look at the beautiful story of Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus’ feet and discover how her bold act models seven forms of generosity: time, attention, wealth, talents, possessions, reputation, and comfort.

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Closer to God: The Grace of Generosity (Randy)

In this lesson, we explore how the gospel reshapes our relationship with money, possessions, and giving. Looking at Jesus’ encounter with the rich young ruler in Luke 18, we’ll examine why money holds such power in our lives, how it can subtly become an idol, and how true generosity can only flow from a heart transformed by Christ’s generosity toward us.

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Closer to God: Faithful and Grateful (Chris)

This week concludes the middle section of our series on grief, gratitude, and generosity by exploring the connection between faith and gratefulness.  We will contrast the world's view of gratitude and a Christian understanding.  We will consider the example of Jesus's mother Mary from the Bible.  We will outline methods for pursuing gratitude more fully in our own lives.  Ultimately, we will recognize the love of God expressed through the cross of Christ as the ultimate reason for thankfulness.

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Closer to God: Gratitude as Worship (Randy)

Continuing in our theme, Closer to God, tomorrow we’ll explore “Gratitude as Worship.” Our culture talks a lot about being thankful, but rarely directs that gratitude to God. Psalm 100 reminds us that true thanksgiving always leads to worship. We “enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.” Join us as we learn how Jesus reorients our hearts from self-focus to genuine worship, where gratitude becomes an act of praise to the Giver of all good things.

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