Jackie [00:00:04]:
Well, good morning. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be here this morning to share something special about this season that we’re coming into called giving. I’m so grateful that David and Conia asked me to come on today to share my heart. And so today I wanted to. I named my topic today the three G’s and that’s God, gratefulness and generosity. Let’s start with God. We all know we serve an all knowing, powerful God.
Jackie [00:00:46]:
He created each one of us, just especially the way he wanted us to be. I always like going back to the Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary to see what Mr. Webster thought. That was our very, very first dictionary for our country. And here’s what Mr. Webster said. The supreme being, Jehovah, the eternal and infinite spirit, the Creator and the sovereign of the universe. I love that definition.
Jackie [00:01:23]:
Just this morning I was looking through some of my photos for a specific need somebody had requested. And there was a video of my son in law, Josh and my grandson Jace. Jace is probably about 3 years old in this video. So this has been back about a year and a half ago here on a ranch that we live on and we live behind my wife’s parents and Josh and Jace had been up visiting the great grandparents and they’re walking down and I had my camera and I captured a moment and I could hear on the video Jason picked up a little bug or something that was no longer living. And he was asking his daddy about the little bug. And I saw a dad share with a son, teaching him like a father about life and death and nature. It was a beautiful moment that I had forgotten that I’d captured and reminded me of our all power, all knowing God that we serve. How big is the God that we serve? I was as I was reflecting when David asked me to talk.
Jackie [00:02:35]:
I grew up on a small swine and dairy farm in central Oklahoma. And one of my jobs was in the summer was to water the swine. And by the way, pigs don’t sweat, in case you didn’t know that. So you can run a puddle and you know they like to water in the mud. But my father would never let me do that. He would stray, we would forget and we could lose some of our, our, our swine which we had, some of the best in the nation. And I can remember sitting there with the water hose. I had a lot of time on my hands and those, those pigs would drink and drink and, and always got to thinking about how big our God is and about eternity and I can Remember as a little boy thinking about this and especially like, you know, one day we’ll all be in heaven with our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Jackie [00:03:20]:
And I can remember I just having goosebumps come upon me as a little boy and I might see a plane fly over and I go, wow, that’s way up there. And I would think about heaven, just some little reflecting that done and thinking about this mighty God that we serve. And it also reminded me of a little story that Zig Ziglar taught. There was a father and a son and, and there was a stump in the backyard. And the son was probably 9 or 10 years old. The father thought, I need to teach him how to, to work. And, and so I’m going to have him see if he can remove the stump. So the father took the son out one morning on a Saturday morning and gave him every tool that he could possibly need.
Jackie [00:04:00]:
He said, son, there’s an ax, there’s a shovel, you know, there’s a saw, everything you can imagine for, for it was a small stump, it wasn’t a large stump. It was very possible for a 10 year old boy to remove. So the dad went in and the little boy went to work. And after about an hour he came in and he’s just sweating and he says, dad, he said, I can’t get the stump out. And he said, I’ve tried everything. He’s well, son, let’s walk out and see, see, see how you’ve done. And sure enough, the sun, you know, the son had moved, used all these different tools that were laying out there. But the dad said, son, you have not used every tool that I have provided you.
Jackie [00:04:37]:
He said, dad, what do you mean I have. I’ve used the ax, I’ve used the saw, I’ve used a shovel. He said, you haven’t used me. See, a lot of times we forget we have a loving heavenly father that loves us so much. And when we realize that we’re fearfully and wonderfully made, it’s an amazing thing. You see, he gave each one of us the gift of life. I have a little thing I do when I’m coaching or teaching. I have everybody look at their thumb.
Jackie [00:05:05]:
So look at your thumb. Well, Jackie, why am I looking at my thumb? Do you realize there’ll never be another you? No one has your thumbprint. No one has the corner of your eyes. And I was telling a man that I had met a couple years ago telling the story, and he was retired from the FBI. He said, jackie, even your tongue has its own imprint. I Didn’t know that. And there’s a, there’s a scripture in Psalms and it’s Psalms 139, 14. It says, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Jackie [00:05:43]:
Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. And that’s Psalms 139:14. There’s a couple other scriptures when I think about a loving, giving God he talks about in Psalms 145, 15, 16. You see, God provides food at the proper time and he satisfies desires of every living thing. I believe that. And it says in the 15th verse, the eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat induced season. In the 16th verse it says, thou openest thine hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. And then I thought about the Scripture in First Kings 17, 13, 16.
Jackie [00:06:34]:
See, God will make good on all his promises. And that is so true. And which it’s the story about Elijah and the widow when there was. There was a drought and there was no rain and the food supplies were dwindling everywhere. And Elijah went to her and said unto her in the 13th verse, fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring into me and after make for thee and thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And here’s the the great part. She was obedient and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days in the 16th verse.
Jackie [00:07:39]:
And the barrel of meal wasted not. Neither did the cruise of oil fail according to the word of the Lord which he spake to Elijah. God’s promises are forever settled and he does perform what he says he will do. So, so grateful for loving God. And that’s the next part. It’s gratefulness I want to share with you. So I was looking at what gratefulness means and it’s feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness, being thankful. We’re coming into a great season and I’m so glad that God has spoke to David’s heart about having and sharing and having others share about the season of, of giving and gifts.
Jackie [00:08:31]:
It’s a wonderful, wonderful time of year. Many, many memories I have from my childhood of our Thanksgivings, especially with my grandma. Listen, she really kept our family together and I can remember wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations with, with her and all my aunts and Uncles and cousins. And there’s just some wonderful memories there of some Thanksgiving days. Let’s talk about this thing called gratitude. Gratitude is a general appreciation of life, while thankfulness is a response to a particular event or experience. For example, you can be grateful for your family, but thankful that your cousin showed up early to help you to set the holiday table. Right.
Jackie [00:09:17]:
So there’s kind of the difference. To give you a couple of examples there, Colossians 4 and 2 in the amplified version says, be persistent and devoted to prayer, being alert and focused in your prayer life with an attitude of thanksgiving. So about four years ago, plus, I was thinking about this word called grateful. And, and what. What kind of how this came about here in Oklahoma. You know, we’re pretty friendly and we’re always going to go, well, how you doing today? And I’m sure it’s a lot that way in the areas that you live in. And our common response here. Oh, pretty good, right? Okay.
Jackie [00:10:01]:
Just kind of a normal response. Not even really thinking about. It’s just this kind of how we respond. And one morning in prayer, I was thinking, God, what could I do to tell people how I really feel but yet have an impact? He said, jackie, tell him that you’re grateful. I thought, wow, I never thought about that. So I started. It’s been amazing. People come up, sir, how are you today? And I’ll say, well, I’m very grateful.
Jackie [00:10:28]:
How about you? And they go, wow, that’s a. That’s. I love that. And then I go to tell them that, did you know that gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions? And I said, God told me happiness lives in a grateful heart. Then I get a little humor in there. And I said, you know, I don’t think you can be grateful and angry at the same time. And grouchy. Try it.
Jackie [00:10:54]:
And they laugh. And I have these little bracelets that says, I am grateful. How about you? And I say, you know, they said, well, I’m grateful, too. And I said, that is so wonderful. I said, you know what? I need some help. And they said, what do you need help with? I said, well, I’m on a mission to get the whole world grateful. What would happen if everyone was grateful? They said, I would be a better place. So I hand them a little I am grateful bracelet, and they put it on and they served.
Jackie [00:11:19]:
Sir, thank you. Just today, there’s a young man that I’ve been coaching, and I shared the story with him. He sent a text. He said, jackie, I’ve been telling people I’m grateful. And it’s amazing, the responses and how it kind of just. It makes people stop. We’re in this busy world and everybody’s in a hurry. I’m not real sure where they’re all going right now, and.
Jackie [00:11:43]:
But sometimes we miss the moments, right? So I don’t have the patent on I am grateful. So I challenge you. Start today. It’s a great way. And before you know it, it’s just a great habit. I don’t even think about it now. You can ask everybody that knows me well, Jackie, how are you? Well, I’m very grateful. How about you? And they just start laughing.
Jackie [00:12:03]:
That’s what I should have known. It just comes out now because I’m intentional about practicing and being grateful. So I challenge you. This giving season, this Thanksgiving season, coming into the wonderful season of our Savior’s birth, learn to be grateful and express that. And just watch the response. It’s amazing. And I’m so grateful that God gave that to me. And now I’m sharing it with you.
Jackie [00:12:28]:
And hopefully you’ll take this. And I’m just telling you it’s a wonderful thing if you’ll just put it into practice. So I love being grateful, and I would like for all of us to get the whole world grateful. So I need some help. Let’s get into this thing called generosity. I love generosity. And the more I study generosity, the more exciting it really is. So let’s talk about what the word generosity or being generous means.
Jackie [00:12:55]:
It’s. It says, showing a readiness to give more of something as of money or time than is strictly necessary. Expected. You know, it’s going that extra mile. It’s. It’s being generous. And we’ll learn more about being generous here as we go through this. Going back to the.
Jackie [00:13:14]:
No. Webster’s 1828 dictionary, he said that generosity is the quality of being generous. And one of my favorite scriptures on generosity is Proverbs 11:25. And I just happen to like the amplified version. And it says, the generous man is a source of blessing and shall be prosperous and enriched. And he who waters will himself be watered, reaping the generosity he has sown. Isn’t that beautiful? I’m going to read that one more time. The generous man is a source of blessing and shall be prosperous and enriched.
Jackie [00:14:01]:
Think about those two words right there. So we. And he said, you shall be prosperous and enriched. And here’s the great news, too. And he who waters will himself be watered, reaping the generosity he has sown. See, I’m a Farm boy. I come from farmers and teachers. All my great grandparents moved to Oklahoma shortly after the land Run in 1889 on all four of my great grandparents.
Jackie [00:14:35]:
And then I grew up on a farm. And so in a farm community where we plant seeds and we expect a harvest. See God, remember we talked about that. He, his promises are sure. God cannot lie. He will perform what he said he will do. His word is the truth and we can count on him. So in looking into this, I was thought, wondering what kind of studies have been done on generosity.
Jackie [00:15:00]:
And I found one. You can Google it and read it. And it was October 2024 and it was an article by a group called Overflow. And it was kind of a scientific study. You know, you don’t really think about generosity being tied back into science, right? You know, you can imagine somebody in a college class and the professor goes, we’re going to do a science stiff scientific hand talk this morning study on generosity. You know what happened? Boy, how you dissect generosity, right? You scratched your head letter a little bit. But in the study they were talking about, you know, we might associate generosity with, you know, giving money and great checks. And it can be that, of course, but generosity also entails listening, being empathetic, caring for others with our time, effort and energy.
Jackie [00:15:57]:
That’s a form of generosity. Think about it. Now let’s talk about some of the benefits of being generous. Here’s some of the noted benefits. I thought this was pretty interesting. Stress reduction. Wow. We don’t like that, right? How about improved mental health? Wow.
Jackie [00:16:19]:
From being generous, longer lives, deeper emotional connection and a general sense of feeling good. Those sound like some pretty powerful benefits to me. How about you? Here’s the deal. God loves a cheerful giving heart. He said in 2nd Corinthians 9 and 7 in the king James version, every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give not grudgingly or necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. Have you ever experienced when you did something for somebody that there’s no way they could pay you back? Your motive was just to go bless them? I don’t know if there’s a greater feeling going than when you go out and help somebody that can’t help themselves. One time we were, I was coming back from work, I was in banking for 27 and a half years and my brother in law and his father farmed. And here in Oklahoma we put up little square bills of hay.
Jackie [00:17:31]:
We still do some, we now have the round bells, but we still put up some small square Bills and they were, they were, they were. Had several bells down in the pasture there below their house. And I live just about five miles east of him. Well, it was threatening rain. We can’t get hay wet. And when it gets wet, if you put it in the barn, it can, it can eventually smolder and catch a fire. Has to be put up properly. It’s threatening rain.
Jackie [00:17:59]:
And there’s my brother in law and his father and he’s older. There’s my nephew and even my niece is out there. I didn’t hesitate. I went home as fast as I could. I got her one ton truck and our large gooseneck trailer and I grabbed my son. I said, son, let’s go. Rusty and his dad need help. It’s threatening rain.
Jackie [00:18:19]:
Did you know? We got in there, I never said a word. I just went right beside and we started loading hay. And I believe my father came too. He was, he was there and I was able to bring him. Did you know we got all the hay loaded and we just pulled into the barn and it started pouring like we got to call here in Oklahoma, cats and dogs. It was raining hard. He told that story over and over when he was alive. My f.
Jackie [00:18:44]:
My brother in law’s daddy Nolan, he. He rest. He said, Jackie, he said that was a neat that. He said, here come Jackie and his family. And we got the hay up. See, we were being generous with our time. I knew he needed help and it was the right thing to do. And there’s a book called the Paradox of Generosity.
Jackie [00:19:04]:
This was also in that article and I thought this was interesting. They did a ground. They did a study. It was a couple of sociologists named Christian Smith and Hillary Davidson. And they researched, tracked and interviewed individual spending habits over a five year period. Here are some of the wild findings they found. I thought this was interesting. 41% of Americans who donated 10% of their income said they never or hardly ever experienced depression.
Jackie [00:19:33]:
Wow. Those who describe themselves as very happy volunteered almost six hours per month. And those who said they were unhappy volunteered just 30 minutes a month. Those who were in giving relationships or practiced hospitality were more likely to be in excellent health than those who did not. However, another Christian, another however, author Christian Smith, emphasized that to reap the benefits of feeling good, generosity must be woven into our daily rhythms. I think this is a very important part. It has to be a practice. It has to be something that is sustained over time that people engage with regularly.
Jackie [00:20:24]:
One off things just don’t affect us that much. Whereas things that we repeat, things that are sustained in our bodily behaviors and in our minds have tremendous effects on us. He said in an interview when he was being interviewed, this was brought out. Giving is a way to show God that everything we had comes from Him. Isn’t that true? And so think about this. This thing called generosity. There’s a scripture in Philomon 1 and 6 in the New living translation that says, and I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ. Another amazing thing to me in this article it said, live long and prosper.
Jackie [00:21:22]:
I said we gotta check that out. About this thing called generosity. In a recent Chicago Tribune article titled Be generous, It’s a simple way to stay healthier, writer Terry Oblonsky stat cited research linking generosity to lower blood pressure, lower risk of dementia, less anxiety and depression, reduced cardiovascular risk and overall greater happiness. Wow. Look at this. Look at this. Amazing. And going back to the scripture James 1 and 5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
Jackie [00:22:12]:
There’s another promise from the Word. Isn’t it amazing? The loving father I love, he says without fault. Isn’t that what fathers and families and look at this loving father. We’re. We’re. We’re the King’s kids, right? We’re God’s kids. He loves us. He wants the best for us.
Jackie [00:22:31]:
He is teaching us like my son in law was teaching my little grandson. Jace, there’s things that you do and to know and it works, you know, if you’ll just trust me. If we’ll just trust our Heavenly Father and study this thing in practice. Being generous in Acts 20:35 the Scripture says, I have showed you all things. How that soul laboring you ought to support the week and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus. How he said, it’s more blessed to give than to receive. Acts 20:35. In closing, let’s cover these three one more time briefly.
Jackie [00:23:17]:
God, we are created in our Father’s image and he teaches us to give. And guess what? He gave us the greatest gift ever. His Son Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed him should not perish but have everlasting life. Johns 3:16. Gratitude. I am grateful. How about you? Generosity.
Jackie [00:23:48]:
Make a commitment in a new start today to be generous and watch all aspects of your life benefit. Thank you.
