Proverbs 3:9-17

Our guest speaker this Sunday was Franco Salvatori, an Everence stewardship consultant. Due to flight cancellations he couldn't be with us in person, so he shared his message via Zoom.

Consumerism is a unifying religion in America. It's the thing that makes you wish you just had more. But as Christ's followers we're called to worship only one God, and it's not consumption. It's easy to fill our lives with stuff, but still be empty.

The path toward an overflowing life is through wisdom and generosity. Honoring God with our first fruits is the practice of recognizing God's hand in providing the resources that we have.

God calls us to give of our first fruits not because God needs it, but because it actually changes us. It changes our hearts and helps us focus on the giver. As we practice that discipline it creates an attitude in us that Franco called wealth. If we've developed an action of giving and of generosity, because we are seeking wisdom and we're seeking God, then it's the exact opposite of consumerism. And Proverbs tells us that is the pathway to an overflowing life.