Give to the Max // Pastor Amelia Houdek

Most of us have two wallets. One for groceries, gas, and Amazon orders… and another—the “church wallet”—that sometimes stays home on Sunday. 😄This week’s message, Give to the Max, isn’t about guilt or giving charts—it’s about trust. Paul reminds us that cheerful giving isn’t about how much we give, but the spirit in which we give it. When we give to control the outcome, we’re not really trusting God—we’re managing God.  But when we give freely, without strings attached, we make space for God’s grace to move through us. Because when our hands open, so do our hearts. And that’s when joy begins to grow—the kind of joy that transforms faith from something we hold onto into something that holds onto us. In God’s hands, generosity becomes more than a habit—it becomes a way of life, a living witness to how faith changes us from the inside out.