Today’s teaching from Cedar Springs Community Church in Graham, Washington looked at the final message in our series on the practices of a pure church. We closed the series not because the practices end, but because we intend to live them. Over the past seven weeks we have pressed into baptism, communion, community, discipleship, sound teaching, worship, prayer, and generosity. Each practice helps form us into the kind of church Paul describes in Ephesians 5, a church that Christ loves, sanctifies, and presents in splendor.

This morning we returned to generosity, moving from serving those in need to giving financially. Our CS Cares offering begins today and continues through December 7. These gifts will support local ministries, partner churches, global missions, and direct needs across our congregation. We are also preparing to build a youth center that will serve students year round. The identified need is more than five hundred thousand dollars, which is far beyond our typical yearly giving, yet not beyond God’s ability to provide. The real question for many of us becomes the title of today’s message, how much.

We looked at the difference between the sneering version of that question and the open handed version. Scripture reminds us that the love of money reshapes our hearts in unhealthy ways, while the generosity of God in Christ calls us to a different way of living. As Paul encouraged the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 8, we are invited to excel in this act of grace, giving according to what we have, with eagerness and joy. Our generosity reveals what we believe about God, what we value in His people, and who is truly master over our lives.

If you would like to support CS Cares, you can give online at cedarspringsnw.com, through the church app, or in the offering box by marking your gift for CS Cares. Subscribe for more teachings, share this message with someone who needs it, and join us next Sunday at 10AM in Graham, Washington.