Live It Up – Week 6 | Give it up!

Clutching your wallet feels safer than trusting anyone—especially God. This sermon names the awkward truth: money so often becomes a master that turns relationships into transactions, and many people have been hurt by guilt-driven giving or by churches that abused generosity. The tension here is raw and specific: wanting security, fearing scarcity, and wondering whether generosity means losing control or being taken advantage of. The message flips the frame: what if money is meant to be a servant, not your savior? Using the example of an ancient church that gave joyfully out of poverty, the talk traces four simple shifts—cheerful, generous, free, and complete giving—and ties them to the scandal of a God who “gave up” everything first. Expect a practical, tender push to stop calculating with a checkbook and start doing the math of the cross—an invitation that makes generosity feel less like duty and more like freedom.