The Expression of Generosity | Free To Give | Brad Formsma

What if God wants to use you to be the answer to a prayer?

If we don’t learn to be generous with our time, influence, and resources, then how will we ever know? 

Join us as we hear from Brad Formsma, author of “I Like Giving,” and how God wants to use us to make a difference in the world.

Transcript

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Cal Jernigan: [00:00:00] Well, hi everyone. Hey, one more time. Welcome to Central. So glad that you are with us this weekend and I trust you're going to be really glad you are as well, because well, today we're going to continue on our series. It's called free to give, and we're just exploring how God created the universe in such a way that is as counterintuitive as, as it sounds God designed that we actually get ahead when we give.

[00:00:20] And it's so not what we think. And so we're just probing into that. But today, what is so cool is I asked a personal friend if he would come and share his story with you. And I just want you to get to know this guy. His name is Brad Formsma and Brad is one of a kind, I don't know anyone else like Brad, Brad started an organization called ILikeGiving.com.

[00:00:42] He founded it and he's the president of it. He literally travels all over the world. He has he has impacted literally millions of people in with a message that you actually benefit from giving. And he's written a book I like giving [00:01:00] and it's a book of stories of just ordinary people like you and me.

[00:01:04] And the impact their lives have had, and then the recipients how they have been blessed by, by the generosity of people, just like you and me. Well, anyway, I could go on and on about Brad. He's a wonderful guy. He lives in Southern California. He's married, he's got three children. His kids are wonderful.

[00:01:20] And yeah. I'm just telling you, I don't know anyone who more lives out the principles of generosity than Brad, and I'm just absolutely delighted that he's here. I I've come to ask him, talk to us about the expression of generosity. So that's what he's going to bring. So, Hey church, put your hands together.

[00:01:36] Welcome to central Brad Formsma. 

[00:01:39] Brad Formsma: [00:01:39] Hey. Hi everybody. Well, It is so fun to be at Central this weekend. You know, I've had a chance to meet pastor Cal and Dave several years ago through our friend, Dave Ramsey. And I would just tell you that words out, you [00:02:00] guys are generous. You guys are loved by your pastors and

[00:02:05] I'm going to bring a gift of perspective today. I know I'm with generous people, but I think generosity inspires generosity. So together we'll have some fun this morning unpacking the generous life. What does it look like? Maybe redefining it a little bit. And hopefully it will be inspiring and encouraging to you.

[00:02:25] So over the next 30 minutes or so we'll spend some time talking about the generous life. I want to take you back though. I'm nine, 10 years old. My mom had just had twins. I was the oldest of five and honestly, just looking for a way to escape. And I found out that I could tag along with my grandpa on Saturday morning to his commercial baking company.

[00:02:47] And I brought a picture of what I kind of looked like maybe a little less than nine at the time, but is that not a Smucker's ad? I mean, that could have been the best college royalty thing ever, but get a dime, but I kinda like it and I thought [00:03:00] I'd give you the feel for that. What turned out to be these special 16 loaves of bread that we would make in his commercial baking company grandpa's oven.

[00:03:09] And so what happened was we, they would cool down. And I kept thinking, we're going to just Saturday morning, bread, Brad, grandpa, we're going to do this: eat a bunch of slice toast and Nope. Into the trunk of his car they went. And we'd go to our first stop. And there would be a widow that he had met from his church or somewhere in the community.

[00:03:33] And he'd bring those two loaves of bread to the door and he just squeezed in her face. You can kind of just smell it now. Right. And then he would be generous with his words and he would affirm her and he would be specific in the way that he did that. And. Then off to the next stop would be a few more loaves of bread.

[00:03:51] And this time a letter of recommendation and behind his bellowing Dutch voice, he'd say, Brad, I have a little influence and I can help [00:04:00] somebody else get toward where they want to go. And he began to show me the power of being generous with your influence. And then, then the next stop. And by the way, I thought, well, let's pull the car over and try some of this bread, but no, that usually wasn't the case.

[00:04:13] And then two more loaves of bread. And this time a white envelope with the white bread and a financial gift and explained. No, this is a way that I can give. And so throughout the morning, generosity of time and attention, and even the way that he shared his belongings. Well, I want to unpack those seven ways for you a little bit.

[00:04:37] In fact, on our Instagram and Facebook, we have wallpaper for the seven ways to live in generously because I need to be reminded about ways that I can give daily, weekly, monthly. So the first idea is generosity of thoughts. We can be generous with our thoughts towards others and ourself. Now you can give the [00:05:00] benefit of the doubt.

[00:05:00] Oh no, that's not fair. Really is that generosity. Of course it is. And I like to say, you know, sometimes I feel sorry for my neighbor, you know, you read that passage, love your neighbor as yourself. And I've got so much negative self-talk I'm like, huh, I kind of feel bad for them right now. Some of you maybe can relate to that.

[00:05:21] But what do you think about when you think about what you think about. Okay. I know I stole that from my friend Henry Cloud, but this idea of our thinking outside of the Holy spirit, I would submit that our brains are our most powerful asset that God's given us. And we get a chance to think about ways of being generous.

[00:05:45] In fact things that become important to us and you guys are givers. You start to think about these seven ways you have the wallpaper on your phone, you see them in your notes, you will find, you'll see more areas in ways, right in front of you to give. It's [00:06:00] just how we're created our reticular activator system in our brain.

[00:06:04] It finds things that's important and makes us more aware. It's kind of like this. You've just got a new Honda accord and you're driving down the road and you see a bunch of them. Well, why I mean, this new car is important to you and you think about it and you think about it. And there it is. They didn't just fall off the assembly line and there's more of them just because you thought of it.

[00:06:25] You're looking for it. You're thinking it. And that's what I think will happen today, as we unpack these seven ways. So generosity of thought, number one, generosity of words. Number two, life and death are in the power of the tongue. We can build people up. And we can cut people down. We know what the anti generosity word is.

[00:06:46] We know what that feels like, and it could have happened in the car ride to church, or it could have happened 10 years ago, but we also know what it's like to be affirmed and have something. [00:07:00] Positive said to us. Just last night, having dinner with Pastor Cal and Lisa, the server came up after we did the, you know, pre salad prayer.

[00:07:09] Cause those are just a little better. We did the pre salad prayer and she said, I just noticed that you guys were praying. That's so cool. And we all felt good about it. And we didn't tell them we're pastors and then she left and you know, but this, this, the idea of it, doesn't take much to just say something positive and something affirming and generous and be specific.

[00:07:32] Then third, one generosity of money. Every time I give it softens my heart, I become more like Jesus. And it's more others focused. Our family loves to regularly give to our church. And that's part of our discipline of putting God first. And we find other ways throughout the week to be, to be generous in other areas.

[00:07:55] Well, number four, generosity of influence. We all [00:08:00] have influence some way, whether it's in our home, our community, our companies. It's a powerful way to share influence. I actually wouldn't be here on this at your church. Without generosity of influence being given to me, I got a call from Dave Ramsey.

[00:08:19] He heard about what we were doing in the generosity world and inspiring people to be generous and had me on his radio program and shared a bunch of our videos. And through that, I got into a small little gathering and sure enough, there's pastor Cal and Dave. And that is the power of the generosity ripple, one connection, helping someone get to where they want to go.

[00:08:43] And then generosity of time. Number five, we all have the same slice, 168 hours, and we get to decide how we're going to use it. One of my favorite missionary friends, John DeVries, who recently passed away, [00:09:00] said the devil's greatest trick is to get you to do the good God didn't call you to do. There's something about developing and discerning your purpose and what are you supposed to be doing.

[00:09:14] So that might involve saying no. So you can be in a position to say yes for what exactly God would have you do. Powerful thing. We all have that same amount of time. How do we want to give that away? And then generosity of influence number six. Oh, it's not number six. I already said it. That's number four.

[00:09:37] See what happens sometimes I mess him up. Generosity of attention is number six. I think I know why I just forgot it. I kind of want to leave it out. Cause this one is a hard one for me. Maybe my hardest. I carry around six ounces of glass, plastic, and technology, the phone. Oh, my [00:10:00] gosh, that thing distracts me all the time.

[00:10:02] In fact, pastor Cal said, I come from California. They let me out for this weekend. And I don't know if I should have said that. Maybe, maybe they won't let me back in. But anyway, we, we go out to dinner, like for date nights in our parking lots. And so we're out in the parking lot and it's funny cause you know, water goes downhill, so they have to grade the parking lot that way.

[00:10:26] So you kind of sit like this at dinner and I'm like, can you believe honey, all these people that are out for dinner with their cell phones. And she said, yeah, it's a, it's amazing. Kind of like you like, Oh no. I mean for crying out loud, I was looking at what everybody else was doing and realized I wasn't being fully present with her.

[00:10:47] We know. Don't we, what it feels like when somebody is fully present with us. And we also know what it feels like to have somebody looking over our [00:11:00] shoulder or not being fully present with us. It's a powerful gift. Powerful way to be generous. And then generosity of sharing our belongings. This takes on different forms.

[00:11:11] I would say, perhaps pre COVID, there's a knock on the door and your neighbor says I'm making chocolate chip cookies. I'm short, a couple eggs. And could I have a few eggs? And you know, you kind of skipped to the fridge and in the back of your mind, if you're honest, you're thinking I might get a few cookies out of this deal.

[00:11:28] If it goes right. But what happens a week or two later when you've gotten a new car and their cars in the shop and they see that your other cars still there, she didn't turn it in. And Hey, can I use your car when mine's in the shop? And a hush falls over Central Christian, right? Okay. This isn't about conviction, but it takes me to one of my favorite passages.

[00:11:55] Where it says, command them to do good, be rich in good deeds and stopping [00:12:00] right there. I would say that's where he wants us to know this generosity thing isn't once and done. It's always an often. Command them to do good, be rich in good deeds, be generous and willing to share. And that willing to share thing is a posture of our heart.

[00:12:21] So I don't know what that is for you. But I would just submit if it's all owned by God, then it says this position of how do we share that? So those seven ways modeled by grandpa frame up kind of what we do at I like giving and what we do in terms of teaching and inspiring people to live generously.

[00:12:43] Well, grandpa would always say, you gotta get your antenna working. And it was his way of saying you're looking and you're listening for giving opportunities. Now my sons came to me the other day and they said, dad, you really need to explain to the audience what an antenna is, because if people under 30 are [00:13:00] there, they're not going to know what an antenna is, but we all know with an antenna, one has to be intentional.

[00:13:05] Right? You turn the radio on. You're intentionally focusing at something you're thinking about it. It's important to you. You want to get a better reception. So the antennas working. And for our family, we would always say to our kids, we want to bring you in and around conversations of giving. And we want to use that through the power of story.

[00:13:27] So like I came across a newspaper article one time. And the kids were 10, seven and two. And I began to read this article about a Sudanese father and son who were firebombed out of their village. They lost friends and family, and they were now in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They had a couple bikes given to them and they have clothes, you know, that not very many clothes and the bike was the dad's way to work.

[00:13:55] And the, the other bike was the son's main toy. And as I read further, I [00:14:00] realized that their bike were stolen. Like, Oh, okay. One question. What should we do? My oldest son said, we got to go get them bikes. And I'm like, you're right. We gotta go get them bikes. So we went to the bike store, loaded them in the back of the minivan.

[00:14:17] And as we rolled up to that first stop sign, my wife looks over and says, where do they live? I'm like, I don't know that it put the address in the newspaper. This is where I'm going to bring you into my marriage a little bit. I'm the gas pedal. She is the brake. Now some of y'all might be married to a break or a gas pedal.

[00:14:38] And the last service, there's a lot of this going on. I'm not really trying to do that. I don't need anybody to get hurt, but the point is, it's a funny thing. That there are times I wish she would just be all gas, but if we were both gas pedals, yikes. But there's this idea of being unified and working together and [00:15:00] seeking to understand each other instead of, Oh, you just want to give all the money away or all, you don't want to give anything.

[00:15:06] Okay. So this is a fun dance that we get to be a part of. Well, She's a planner, like her idea of a surprise birthday party is three weeks of details. I'm kind of not. I'm ready, fire, aim. So well, that led to four and a half hours of the wild goose chase all over our city. And we found these people though. And when we did, because of the language barrier, all the dad could say is I like bike.

[00:15:36] I like bike as he's riding down the street and we get in the car. Okay, cool. You like bikes? And my wife says I kept hearing a voice that there would be hundreds of bikes in that front yard. And there weren't any, I think God had an assignment for us today. [00:16:00] And then from way in the back of the car, dad, that was way better than us going to the water park today.

[00:16:10] And it was in that minute that I just realized. Yes. That's why I'm giving my life away to this work of inspiring people to be generous. And now training the next generation of givers through a talk about it a little bit more in a few minutes, but through our education system and showing them the seven ways of how they can live daily, weekly, monthly, because when kids experience the joy of giving young and they have it modeled to them, research shows us it sticks.

[00:16:42] For the rest of their life, they might have moments of, you know, fading away from it, but there it's, the seeds are planted. Well, I must've said that I like bike story to my friend, Scott and Scott says [00:17:00] that's really, yeah. Interesting. Okay. You know, I like bike, whatever. And then he texted me one day and he said, I like cavities.

[00:17:09] Kind of a strange text enough to get a phone call sought. Right. I like cavities. I'm not a dentist and I know you're not. And he's like, well, okay. You know, here's the deal at a dentist's office. I overhear a single mom say $926. I can't, I can't pay it. And he said, I'm, I'm keep hearing. I like bike. I like bike in my head.

[00:17:33] Here's your chance. And he goes, you know, I'm introverted. Like, I don't even know if I like people and I had my antenna work. And so I went over there and I said, would you forgive me for eavesdropping? And he says, I want to take care of it. He gives his credit card to the cashier. Now when I'm with Dave Ramsey, I say debit card.

[00:17:58] He likes that a little bit better. [00:18:00] So just a little modification in this story to, you know, the tears flew out of and rolled down the cheeks of the giver and the receiver. And he talked about how his wheels didn't hit the ground the whole way home. Now he's a regular giver to his church. He kept growing in his giving and he was looking for other ways to, you know, quite frankly think about that

[00:18:28] passage in Galatians were bury each other's burdens. He, he eliminated a burden because he had his antenna work and he saw something. So this idea of, we get to give this, this passage, therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those that are believers in the Lord. So we get aware and then we move into action.

[00:18:55] And action has this interesting way of going about itself [00:19:00] because sometimes we get an uncomfortable situations and we have to get pushed off the dock. We have to get moved into the direction like Scott was. Our family has an emergency giving fund. You know, Dave talks about the emergency fund. We like to have a little pile of money that is kind of in our minds set aside and it's there.

[00:19:21] And we said to our kids, part of the modeling here is to have discussion, right? So we got the gas pedal dad, we got the break mom, we got all this. What do you think? If you see something, say something, bring it to us. We can't meet every need, but we can process it. That's how you train it. And so my oldest son came to us one day and he said, my friend Nolan, his dad just found out he has two months to live.

[00:19:51] And is there anything we can do? So we talked about all sorts of different ideas. What can we do? And we landed on a prepaid visa card. We're like, [00:20:00] they've got to have a bill that we wouldn't know about. So we decided we're going to do one of those stealth giving things and just drop it off at their house and not get caught.

[00:20:09] Well, pulling out of the driveway, we got busted the mom saw us, so they knew it was us. Rats! And two months later we got the word that hit, the man had passed away and we were, so we were so sad about that.

[00:20:36] Three weeks later and note came in the mail and it said, dear Brad and Laura, my husband, Tom, was pacing back and forth in the living room, praying and asking God to provide money so he could put new tires on my car for those Michigan roads in the winter time. So I would be safe. [00:21:00] The creator of the universe works through us to answer prayers.

[00:21:08] The creator of the universe works through us to answer prayers. I know that that might sound overwhelming. But I would submit that it's something that we get to be a part of, but I think we have to have our antenna work and I think we have to be willing to be in a position where he speaks through us.

[00:21:29] And I don't know what that's going to be like in heaven seeing this man. But he might say, I like tires. Just saying, I don't know, but I'll tell you what happened that day for our family. We realized that there are people that are praying for provision for their organizations and churches and others. And we get to be sensitive to God's spirit on how we respond and what we get to do.

[00:21:59] Powerful. [00:22:00] Now you might at this point, think, gosh, this guy seems to always work good in this whole giving adventure and you know, must be fun. It's just always great. Well, not so quick. There was a moment at our church when I did live in Michigan. Bunch of us guys got together in our Bible study and put money together to get William a new van. William had come from another country, powerful story felt called to do his regular job, but then go to jails and share his testimony and all this.

[00:22:33] Well, we are so excited. We get the van. We even went over the top, bought insurance for a year. Perfect. Delivered him the keys. He was all happy and two or three weeks go by and I thought, wonder how it's going at the jail. So I call, Hey William, hi, how's it going? He said, w how's work going? I said, are you going to the jail?

[00:22:56] No, no, I haven't driven the van since I got [00:23:00] it. Why? Well, I don't have a license. Well, I mean, the things I take for granted, so now all of a sudden I'm like, Well, William, tell me more. Well they keep failing me. Who keeps failing you? Well, because of the language barrier, I gotta go to this outside service.

[00:23:20] They keep taking $150 and I've failed it four times and I just, I got to save up money and then they... Really? So in comes generosity of influence. I said, why don't we go together down there to the neon light store? And it was just funny how they had $149 package and William would be available to be driving in two days.

[00:23:43] We just did that $149. Sometimes it's kind of messy. William ended up getting a license and we got on the road, but here's the deal. That was took three hours of time messing around. And it was sometimes messy. I write about that [00:24:00] in my book. Sometimes it's not a straight line. Sometimes we ended up giving the gift of inconvenience, but it was not just money giving in time.

[00:24:08] It was influence. He needed an advocate or they would have kept failing him and taking his money. Jerks. That just slipped, sorry, pastor Cal. Just makes me mad that people would take advantage of somebody else. But the point is you move into action and you just don't know quite what's going to happen. Now, pastor Cal talked about benefits of giving.

[00:24:34] There are hundreds of them, but just in the spirit of time, I'm going to punch three of them out for you. Number one, we have better relationships with each other when we're generous. Let me explain. You have never said to a friend, I've got to introduce you to stingy Sally. She's awesome. You got to go to lunch with her because when you do, she'll kind of hint to the lowest [00:25:00] cost menu item.

[00:25:01] And then when the check comes, she'll sit there and wait and awkwardly stare at it. And wonder if you're actually going to get it, even though she invited you to lunch and kind of encourage you to get the lowest price and menu, you just don't do that. But you do want to share your world and your generous friends with others.

[00:25:18] And that's why the proverb says the world of the generous get bigger and bigger in the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. The second thing is you get joy on earth when you are a giver. And the third thing is you lay up for yourself, treasure in heaven. I have a friend who's 105 years old and I talked to him every couple of weeks, by the way, this is an interesting one.

[00:25:43] When he was 90, I felt like I heard God say, be his friend till the end. I quickly said, yes, didn't really know what I said. Yes. To be careful what you say yes to. But he's very sharp Stanley Tam, wonderful man. Very, very generous. And I said, Stanley, tell me more about your [00:26:00] financial giving. He said, Oh, it's very easy.

[00:26:01] I just put in the bank account of heaven, then I don't have to have it in the bank of America. I don't have to worry about them going out of business. I don't have to worry about it getting lost. Like, why is it so simple? Why do we make this so hard? He was like, yeah, it's just waiting for me when I get there.

[00:26:16] Right. Where your treasure is, your heart will be always. Okay. Thank you Stanley. Words of wisdom from 105 year old guy. Interesting enough. I have a podcast called the wow factor while stands for words of wisdom. And every week I've got a different guest on who's typically in business or a leader of some sort, and you find good hearted leaders

[00:26:41] tend to serve and be generous in their companies and other ways. So if you're into that, that is so fun. The other day, I had Lindsay Snyder who owns in and out burger on not only did I find out the way she gets her burger ordered, but I learned her wow or word of wisdom for us was be vulnerable as a leader. I'm like, what [00:27:00] do you mean by that?

[00:27:01] Oh, I tell him, I don't know. I tell him I'm wrong. Wow. And then she went on to describe how they're generous with their stores and the way that they help people who can't help themselves and trafficking and other issues like this. I'm like, wow, we need more of that. Don't we in our culture? We get there's enough

[00:27:20] noise and negativity. We got to find good things to take in and realize that God's work and all over our great country in the lives of many people and these businesses. So awareness to action. And that takes us to impact. Now impact is a powerful thing, because one question can change a lot. I was thinking the other day, like, how do I, where do I find a widow?

[00:27:48] Light bulb went off when I'm getting my hair cut. I'll ask the lady. So you know how it is. You're kind of tipped upside down in the chair. Shampoo in. And I sat up and said, where do I get a widow? It came out a little funny. [00:28:00] And she, once she understood my motive, which is to be helpful, you know, she said, I got Evelyn, she's 88 years old.

[00:28:06] She's low on money. She's cutting back on her medicine. So at 88, we started as a family anonymously, giving her money thinking, we'll see her in heaven. And then she turned 92. So we went out to lunch with her and you know what happened at that lunch? Fast friends that quick. Why do you think that was? Where your treasure is your heart will be.

[00:28:31] So I, at that time the, the work of I like giving was becoming more popular. A publisher came to me and said, you should write a book. And I said, I cheated in high school English. I'm not your guy. And they said, no, no, no. We can help people like you, which made me kind of think, wonder about the other books I've read, you know, what happened with those guys, gals anyway, in the book [00:29:00] Evelyn's story, just a couple sentences.

[00:29:03] Tears ran down my cheeks and I felt deeply grateful. And at that moment I knew what I needed to do. You see money is like a river it's meant to keep on moving. Now one says you shouldn't throw at church, but it can I give this to you? Who wants to catch it? Okay, perfect. I like giving, what can I say? I like giving books anyway.

[00:29:28] Thank you for being a good receiver. Yeah. In many ways. You want to meet Evelyn? Well, I brought a short video of her. So check out the screen. I'll be right back.

[00:29:43] Video: [00:29:43] How old are you? 97. I mean, 98 in October

[00:29:54] I live in a retirement community.

[00:30:00] [00:30:00] We used to have a bus here to take people to the grocery store twice a week. And they gave that bus up. I don't know why. So a lot of people were stuck around here. Like my neighbor, Joyce, who was a very shy person. She said to me, well, if they don't get another bus, they'll find another place for me to live.

[00:30:25] And she says, I just don't want to go anywhere else. I said, Joyce, I'll get you to the grocery store every week. And I lost my driver's license because somebody thought I was too old, but I didn't have a mark against me at all. I was heartbroken. I really was. It made me feel old. It made me feel useless.

[00:31:05] [00:31:00] I am a good driver. I really am. I am not fearful when I drive, but I'm very careful. No, well, I drive 65 if I has, I obey the rules. So I went to get it back. 

[00:31:23] Brad Formsma: [00:31:23] Isn't she awesome. Spunky Evelyn? Yeah, so good. So good. A couple of years ago, Evelyn went to heaven, man, that week. Huh? You know, it really is when Jesus said where your treasure is, your heart is, it's fascinating

[00:31:45] how that connection to someone who we happen to be across the country from each other. Now some of you are wondering, that's kinda not very cool. You left us hanging. And I did that on purpose [00:32:00] because I think most people don't talk about giving in generosity. And so what we've done is we've given you our, our website address.

[00:32:09] ILikeGiving.com/story. And there you can go watch the four minute versions, the full version. So give this a try. This is so fun. You watch the whole story. You'll find out what happened in this cliffhanger. And then you'll realize that when you start asking, what did you see in that? How did it make you feel?

[00:32:29] You'll begin to understand a little bit about the power of talking and learning about the generous life. I went to Evelyn's funeral newsflash, when you're 98 and you pass away, it's not all your friends who are 90. So it was 20 somethings, 30 somethings, and it was packed and it was like a picture of a, of a generous life, not a very wealthy woman, but someone super rich towards God and others.

[00:32:57] In fact, that one question led [00:33:00] to this video coming together of where do I find a widow? Well, widow and over 10 million people around the globe have seen a picture of her story. One of the things that we're doing at, I like giving is very focused on training and discipling the next generation of givers.

[00:33:18] We've learned that between nine and 11 years old children move from being concrete learners to abstract learners, and it's in the abstract that generosity lives. And this is where their first time of their values and morals and worldview get shaped up. So what a powerful thing for us to, through Christian schools and through public schools to teach this to teachers who can bring it into their classroom for five, 10, 15 minute segments.

[00:33:48] And I'm going to ask you to pray about this because we are moving this into a place that I think will impact the heart of a kid, impact the culture of the class and [00:34:00] impact our, our country and the world we're in. I had the privilege of a grandpa modeling it and someone say, Oh, how are you going to get Jesus into the public school?

[00:34:11] I'll tell you. I got on a PBS the other day and the guys, no, I don't want any of that religious stuff. Oh, okay. I won't do anything religious I said, but I do kind of live my life by this idea that it's more blessed to give than receive. All blankety blank I believe in that. The lights came on, Brad's here today to talk about it's better to give than receive.

[00:34:33] And I'm thinking, I think that's something the carpenter from Nazareth said, wow. I love that same thing in the school environment, we create religiously neutral stuff to give to teachers. Many teachers are Christians that work in public schools as a way to model a life that's possible. And so that's where we're excited and that's quite frankly why some people come along and go, you need [00:35:00] help and we give money to you because you know, you're taking this message, which is God's message to the world.

[00:35:06] So that's a little bit about what we do at, I like giving and I would just say that in closing, As we look at those seven ways and you perhaps downloaded the wallpaper from Instagram or Facebook. I have them on my phone and I teach this every day. There's just something about somebody told me the other day, 110 times you awaken your phone during the day.

[00:35:29] Wow. That's amazing who sits around and counts that stuff, first of all. But anyway, It was just a reminder, I think, as you have your antenna working, and you're thinking about those seven ways, the opportunities will be like that Honda accord, they're all around you, but they always were there. Now a note from grandpas where I close when I was 14, grandpa inked this note to me, I had no idea what I would be [00:36:00] doing in my life after I sold a small business back in 2007.

[00:36:05] I found this note when I was 14, he said, dear Brad, Winston Churchill said, we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. I think this is well worth, remembering love Gramps, and I think it's well worth remembering for us as well. Thank you for having me here at Central.