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Let's give God praise for Convoy of Hope and what they're doing around the world and all of our kingdom builders, partners that are giving their lives to feed the poor all around the world and to bring the gospel message of Jesus Christ. And we're already well into this service and even into this message just knowing that this is an exciting weekend across River Valley. We've done this our third year and we're believing in faith that this weekend across all of our campuses, with everybody leaning in, saying, hey, I'm gonna participate in G1 day's wage that we as a church can raise over a million dollars to feed people all around the world. Anybody passionate about that? Anybody excited about leaning in participating? This is not for buildings. This is not for stuff. This is not for our comfortability. This is to feed people around the world that need food. And maybe you haven't heard a stat recently, and I know numbers can just flip, float in and out of our heads, but 9 million people every single year will lose their life to hunger. That is a person, on average, every three and a half seconds. Pastor Rob, text our campus pastors this morning, praying over this weekend that our church would respond and step up as the church of Jesus Christ. And he just said this phrase, there are children that need food and will not receive food unless our church participates in giving. We have to believe that on the other side of our giving this weekend, we're gonna save lives. Not just feeding bellies, but people are gonna find Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior. It is about souls. And here's the framework that my wife and I, as we, you know, even just this morning we gave our one day's wage, said we're participating. But our framework of being planted in a local church, this is what we believe. God planted us here. And as long as he has us here, we're gonna participate in the vision. And this is a part of vision. It's an annual thing we do. And by the way, as much as it's feeding people around the world, it's good for us to have a reminder. It's good for us. This is good. This is biblical. This is vision. And so for us, for me and my house, this is an easy. Yes, it's. It's easy, it's a joy. Our theological statement is more than cliche. We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others. I've just got three quick points in this message. We're gonna have a, again, an offering at the end, a way to respond and participate. But the first One is holiness releases. Holiness releases. In the church, Christ followers, we, you know, we wanna pursue holiness. And there's a lot of people that are passionate, you know, I'm separating myself from the world because I want to pursue holiness. But I'd love to present to you that you cannot be holy and not be generous. Generosity is embedded within holiness. There's this section of scripture in the book of Leviticus, actually, which again is Old Testament, but exposes the heart of God. And Leviticus chapter 17 through 26 is called the Holiness code. And within this holiness code, I'd love to read Leviticus chapter 19. It puts generosity within the description of what it means to live a holy life after the Lord. This is not just about separating ourselves, holiness, not just separating ourselves from the way of the world, but it's also pouring yourself out to meet the needs of others. So if I want to meet the needs of others, holiness releases. I'm opening. I'm loosening my grip. Here's the verses 9 through 13 in Leviticus 19. Talking to somebody who is harvesting their crop. When you reap the harvest of your land, you. You shall not reap your field right up to its edge. Neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. Loosen your grip. You shall not strip your vineyard bare. Neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God. You shall not steal. You shall not deal falsely. You shall not lie to one another. You, you shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with with you all night, until the morning. Verse 18, just the end of that verse. But you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. Holiness within it is generosity. A lot of times we think about holiness like, I'm going to abstain. I'm going to. I'm going to show self denial. I'm going to participate in fasting, giving up food for a period of time because I want to lean into the Lord. But it makes sense that generosity is kind of the other side of that coin. To help us abstain, to help us deny our flesh, it's actively living in generosity. We need to live this out. And generosity, this holiness comes generosity. The Lord is saying, I am the Lord who is holy, and you should be holy as well. We need to release our grip. Holiness releases. I was gonna make a joke. If you Were here last week. Everybody make a fist and hold it real tight. I'm just kidding. You can let it go. That's an inside joke. Watch last weekend's message. It was about forgiveness. Hey, release in generosity. It's that same effect. Let's open our hands, saying, God, everything that I have is yours. CS Lewis says this from Mere Christianity, famous book. He said, I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I'm afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc. Is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. What is he saying? He's saying, listen to the person next to us who has the same income. The Christ follower should be extremely generous. It should have some type of effect on us that we are going to depend on God for our provision. And we're gonna depend on God through generosity. Holiness releases. The second point is compassion reaches. So it's this progress, this progression of meeting needs in others lives. Again, there are people. I know it's hard to perceive in America, although there is hunger, there are hungry people in America. But Pastor Rob said this. He's like, in my whole life, I can't remember ever being concerned about where my next meal was gonna come from. But again, there are 9 million that will lose their lives this year to hunger. This progression of meeting needs, holiness releases, compassion reaches. I'm not just going to open my hands, but I'm going to. I'm going to reach out. And you look at the life of Jesus as the most compassionate one. To leave his throne and to enter humanity and to walk this life and to be tempted as we're tempted, and to live perfectly above reproach and to die on a cross, be raised to life again. But while he was on this earth, he was moved by compassion. Moved. It caused him to move out into act. Jesus was moved with compassion. Matthew 14:14. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. There's another example of compassion, and it's not this specific example is not always preached. But I think it's such an amazing story in the Bible how he's moved with compassion. Luke, chapter 7, verses 12 through 15. As Jesus drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out. The Only son of his mother. She was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. It's a funeral procession. And when the Lord saw her, he. He had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. He's moved. He's reaching out. Do not weep. Then he came up and he touched the buyer. And the bearers stood still. And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Can you imagine? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that Jesus did that? And that's what he's able to do today. But just think about if you're. He's interrupting a funeral procession and he has compassion. Not on the guy who lost his life, but Scripture, and I'm sure he did, but I'm saying Scripture is exposing. He had compassion for the mom who was grieving and hurting and in need. I'm gonna act not just to raise a life. He obviously values that life, but he values somebody that is hurting. Man, would it be awesome to walk with Jesus as he was moved with compassion to see a miracle like that? And I just want to remind you that we walk with Jesus. We walk with Jesus, and we should have a heart that is moved with compassion. As much as there's a. A bold statement of release your grip, there should be a bold statement. Let your heart be moved. Let it be moved like Jesus heart was moved. And let him use you in miraculous ways. And you might not think giving a day's wage is a miracle, but ask the person who eats the meal, ask the child who's who, who is desperate for their next meal. And. And you participated. And by the way, it's a miracle that one family alongside another family, alongside hundreds of other families that participate, at whatever level the Lord has given them, whatever increase he's given, that they would release it out of their hands collectively, that is a miracle. I believe that Convoy of Hope says $1 can provide five meals. $1 can provide five meals. Even if you can't give an entire day's wage, what can you give? A dollar is five meals. What would it have been like to walk with Jesus? And what is it like to walk alongside you when you are moved with compassion? I'd love my children to say, I saw my dad moved with compassion, and he acted. So we told our children, we're giving this week, and our family is giving. We're participating because we care about people's souls and to hear the gospel it needs. We need to calm the Hunger pains of the children and the people around the world that are in pain be moved. I remember being a freshman in. Sorry, sophomore in high school. And I was deeply moved by something troubling that I saw. And it was a marking moment for me. And I'll just quickly explain this story. There was a guy, his name was Mitch, he was a year younger than me. And all throughout elementary and middle school, we would go to the same schools and he'll always be around. He was again, a year younger, but he was a top tier athlete. And we would be in similar settings where we'd be playing flag football, soccer, different sports, and he was. It's like he's a year younger and this guy's better than me. You know, it's like you just get frustrated. But he was like all star athlete. And I remember, you know, going to the, you know, freshman year of high school, he was still in middle school, so I didn't. I actually didn't see him for a long period of time. Over a year. And in sophomore year, going back to school, sophomore year, he would then come to the high school. And I found out at the beginning of the school year that over the last year, he had been battling cancer, severe cancer. And I hadn't seen him since. He was scoring touchdowns and he was wheeled in, in a wheelchair into our choir class, totally deformed, bald because of radiation, chemotherapy, all that. And I remember being moved at seeing something that was. It's like he has been. I didn't. I didn't even know I was deep. I, like, I almost fainted. I got sick to my stomach. And today we're not, you know, we don't do this weekend, one day to feed the world for. For pity's sake. Or to make somebody sick. We're not. That's not the goal. But the goal is that we would be moved. Our heart would not grow calloused. We would not sweep things under the rug or ignore things. And just as long as my family's good, no, no, we're gonna put this in front of the church every single year. And it's good for us to be moved. So many times we see something and we're affected by it. That first missions trip, that first global team, that first serving opportunity, that first reaching out to orphans, that first adoption story that you hear about. You're deeply moved. And then you, you hear things or see things time and time again. We grow callous. No, Lord, let soften my heart Break my heart for what breaks yours like Lord, I don't Want to have a hard heart. I don't want to gloss over, I don't want to ignore. I want to participate and be used by you to change people's lives. Lord, would you use me first? John 3, 16, 18. This is. This is powerful passage. By this we know love, that Jesus laid his life down for us, and we ought to lay our lives down for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word and talk, but indeed in truth. It's amazing being part of River Valley. Last year we gave over $12 million to Kingdom Builders. This church, collectively, it's something that we celebrate. But if we're not careful, we can take that narrative or celebrate that about our church, which is, it's amazing. What God has done through this church is miraculous. But we're not going to celebrate that at the expense of a heart that is growing callous or hard or ignoring and saying, yeah, I'm a part of that church. No, I'm a participant and a partner in advancing the Kingdom through small groups, through serve teams, through global teams, through sending missionaries, through participating in giving to Kingdom Builders. I am a participant in this life, this adventure, this thrill of what it means to follow Jesus. The last point. Surrender reproduces. Humility or holiness releases. Compassion reaches and surrender reproduces. You remember the story Jesus feeds the 5,000. And Philip's like, how are we going to feed these people? They're getting all hungry. It's going to cost so much. How is this even possible? And this little boy with some fish and with some loaves. You remember the story if you've been around church, but even if this is your first time, this is a true story. This little boy offers up his lunch. I find it funny in Leviticus, the farmer, the harvester, he got what was his. And he said, hey, leave the margins for the poor. This little boy takes it to the next level. This is my lunch. This is my one day's father food. And I'm going to give it to Jesus. And Philip, he's like. He's like, this is not. This is not much. What is this going to do? And I think sometimes we do that. Like, what's my little going to do in your hands? Not much. But when you put it in the hands of Jesus, he does the impossible. Anybody grateful that God can do the impossible with just a little bit, a little bit of I'm surrendering to You, Lord. And he brings his lunch. Fully surrendered. Surrendered provision. A surrendered gift, a surrendered offering. In that moment, they feed everybody that's there. Records would say it's more than 5,000. That was just how they counted the families. It could have been 10 to 15,000 people. And they had 12 baskets overflowing with food at the end of that miracle. Isn't that amazing? I bet you that boy had the biggest lunch of his life. And when we give, it's not about you, but God is so good. When we go on global teams, send people around the world, we'll often say this. God is actually going to do something bigger in your heart than what we do as a team over there. He is gonna do something in your heart. When Hal Donaldson was explaining the story of Mother Teresa and being in Calcutta, he said, that night, God did a work in my heart. And I believe this and I know this. Pastor Rob has put this day on the calendar every year. The last few years, he's put it on the calendar as an opportunity. I believe it's an opportunity. That's how I'm receiving it. It's an opportunity. Lord, would you do a work in my heart and feed people around the world? But, Lord, move my heart, Lord, loosen my grip again, Lord, I surrender all again. This is our opportunity as a church. Jim Elliot was a missionary to Ecuador. Lost his life. He's a martyr. And his testimony, his life, it was made into a movie End of the Spirit. His life has changed a lot of lives. But he said this in his journal a couple years before he would go to be with Jesus. He said he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. That little boy, he had his lunch, he was going to lose it, meaning he would have eaten it and it would have satisfied temporarily. But in the hands of Jesus, it was written in the eternal word of God. And we're talking about it over 2,000 years later. There is something eternal to this. There is something supernatural. And we're asking the entire church saying, did God plant you here and will you participate? There are kids all around the world that are depending on this church, not just through our giving, but in the inspiration and the opportunity that we have through our network of churches. There are many other churches that are following the example that Pastor Robin Becka have led our church to live out. And they're watching. And many other churches are now doing one day to feed the world.