28th May 2017 - Sharing Our Faith When It Costs (Andy Jackson)

Sharing Our Faith When It Costs (Andy Jackson)

This is part of the series from the book of Acts, looking at our mission statement “Helping people find their way back to God through communities growing in their love for God and their love for people”.

Helen Berhane’s Story

Andy showed a video of Helen Berhane’s sharing some of her story (watch  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSRqIUOL-Eg).  She was persecuted in Eritrea East Africa for her Christian faith.  She was held captive in a shipping container, beaten and treated terribly for 2 years.

Helping people find their way back to God is not always easy.  For many, right now, it comes at a high cost that requires sacrifice, and results in persecution, opposition from others, discrimination, loss of freedom, physical violence and even death.

The cost for the first church leaders

When Peter first preaches things go really well and in one day 3,000 people respond and join the church (Acts 2).  But very soon opposition arises.

Peter heals a lame man, and as a result he preaches to the crowd of onlookers.  Peter and John are seized by the authorities, who eventually threaten them and command them not to preach about Jesus, and let them go (Acts 3,4). 

Peter and the other leaders ignore this command and many people believe, and there are numerous healings and miracles.  All the leaders are then arrested and jailed, but an angel supernaturally releases them and tells them to keep speaking about Jesus.  The authorities are amazed to find them still in the temple teaching people, and so re-arrest them and want to put them to death.  Eventually they are flogged, ordered not to speak about Jesus, and released, but they continue daily to preach about Jesus (Acts 5 v 12-42).

Then one of leaders, Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power who performed great wonders and signs, is arrested and immediately following his trial is stoned to death (Acts 6,7).  A great persecution of the whole church begins, which causes them to scatter to other places, preaching the message wherever they go (Acts 8 v 1-3).

The offense of Jesus

Telling people about Jesus bore a great personal cost for the first church.  Persecution has been part of the history of the church ever since, and today is on the increase.  Jesus told us “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9 v 23).

The message that we are all separated from God and need to repent of sin, and put Jesus in charge of our lives is an affront to people’s independence and their own beliefs.  It is a message that challenges authority, and causes a reaction.  The devil also violently opposes this message.

Our freedom to speak about Jesus

We live in a country in which we have freedom to change religion and express our beliefs (article 9 of the Human Rights Act).  Helen Berhane says to us in the free world, “You must not take your freedom for granted.  If I can sing in prison, imagine what you can do for God’s glory in your freedom”.   We must make the most of that freedom, even if it means ridicule and rejection.  Pauls tells us to “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity” (Col 4 v 5).

Andy Jackson has found that of the hundreds of people the CAP centre has offered to pray for, only a very few have refused this offer.  We must not say people’s “No” for them. 

We also need a sense of urgency in sharing about Jesus; we don’t know how long we will have this freedom for, or how many opportunities people have left to hear the message.

Our individual response

Earlier in this series we were encouraged to write down the names of a few people to pray for to find their way back to God.   Let’s use our freedom to pray for them, speak to them, and invite them to church events (e.g. Alpha).

When we do face opposition we must, like the first church, continue to speak about Jesus.  When first arrested, Peter said “…we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard”.   This should be our experience, that our knowledge of God and our relationship with Him compels us to keep speaking of Him to others.

The first church’s response to persecution and opposition was to ask for boldness to speak God’s word, and for God to act with healings, signs and wonders that would draw others to know Him (Acts 4 v 29).  So powerful was this prayer, that the room shook and they were filled afresh with the Holy Spirit!  Let’s make this our daily prayer.

Questions

1   1.  Watch Helen Berhane’s 6 minute story again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSRqIUOL-Eg).  What stands out to you?

2   2.  Why were the early Christians so compelled to speak about Jesus? (Acts 2 v 42-47, 4 v 31).

3   3.  What did the early Christians pray for? (Acts 4 v 29, 30).

     4.  What are keys to growing in boldness and signs/miracles? (Acts 1 v 8, John 14 v 12-14, Matthew 17 v 19-20)

     5.  Spend some time praying:

a.       To be filled with the Holy Spirit.

b.       For boldness to speak to others.

c.       For us to grow in faith and for God to perform signs and wonders.

d.       For individuals you know to find their way back to God (particularly those you previously wrote on a card, or represented via a knot in a string bracelet on Sunday). 

21st May 2017 - "Just Maybe" - John Kirkly

John Kirkby, founder of Christians Against Poverty

21st May 2017

You Never Know …

[We started with a Kerith #mystory video of Alan and Ruth, describing how CAP and Christians had helped them.  It’s a good backdrop to what John has to say, so you might like to watch it on youtube at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dZdiVF1dSto]

You have no idea what happens when you do simple things – God may use you to do something that may profoundly affect a life, even a generation – and change your life too. God can, does and is using everything that happens to his glory.

John Kirkby has been a Christian for 25 years, and its 21 years since he founded CAP. 

He’s very aware that life falls into repetitive rhythms – another opportunity to give, to pray, to serve, each very like the last.  That’s true of CAP – he’s done over 1000 ‘asks’ for CAP and there’s loads more to come. It’s just as true of family life – John has had children under 10 for the last 30 years so he feels that one quite keenly too!

Even things that start off exciting, like foreign travel, can feel boring and repetitive with time.  What was once a pleasure becomes a chore, but also a stretch and a challenge to us to keep going.  If we’re to do that, we need to need to come back to God for strength, inspiration, freshness, and the motivation to keep going – or in some cases to start going(!).

John doesn’t want to get to heaven only to look back and feel there was more he could have done.

We need to be pushed in serving God.  (Again, John speaks from experience - as well as CAP, John also founded a church 9 years ago.  He now styles himself the ‘reluctant elder’). 

For some, life has quenched the fire that used to burn.  We need continually to be reminded by God to “keep the main thing the main thing”, and keep the important things to the fore. Three simple phrases can keep us going:

“You never know …”

“Just maybe …”

·         Just maybe today someone’s going to take this message to heart.

·         Just maybe today a life will be saved

“The next …”

·         Time to talk

·         Time to serve

·         Time life group meets

·          

May be significantly used by God.

There was an evening when John was keen to get home from church, but on the way home he was intercepted by someone he knew.  Reluctantly he paused to speak.  The man had a need, and a story to tell, and they prayed together.  3 weeks later someone else passed on a message from that man, explaining that things had worked out for him as they had prayed, and he was coming to church.

This week …

·         You could invite someone to church.  Yes they might say no, but “just maybe …” this is the right time and they’re keen to come.

25 years ago, one man spoke to someone who looked all together on the outside, but was falling apart inside.  It was only an invite to a BBQ, and then an invite to church – but it ended up with John being saved and later baptised.  Derek, the person who baptised him, was also an encourager and a faithful giver and helper in the early days of CAP.  Only small things, but they meant a lot.

So many people did small things for CAP - encouraging, praying, supporting.  Some people didn’t do apparently small things.  That’s OK – Jesus never left John on his own – but it’s also their loss; they were not part of something that today has helped 600000 people, and saves 1000 people each year worldwide.

Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 in the Message version (with John’s commentary interspersed):

Be generous: Invest in acts of charity.

Charity yields high returns.

                Don’t hoard your goods; spread them around.

Be a blessing to others. This could be your last night.

JK – don’t be too melodramatic, but take that immediacy on board as an attitude of heart – don’t put good deeds off.

When the clouds are full of water, it rains.

When the wind blows down a tree, it lies where it falls.

Don’t sit there watching the wind. Do your own work.

Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on with your life.

JK - I’m going to put all sorts of droplets in the air, so they can be part of the rain. Don’t just sit there watching the winds … get on with your life and do something!

Just as you’ll never understand

    the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman,

So you’ll never understand

    the mystery at work in all that God does.

Go to work in the morning

    and stick to it until evening without watching the clock.

You never know from moment to moment

    how your work will turn out in the end.

JK - I’m going to keep on serving him - he is my Master, I will do what he wants. I help at a food bank at times, talking to those who com it.  It’s not about second-guessing what God might be doing (“is this the significant one?”), just treating people as people; talking, listening, and praying with people in need.

3 years ago, John was on holiday, chilling, and glad to be ‘off duty’.  A lady recognised him.  They didn’t speak then, but at church that evening the same lady was there.  JK wanted privacy, but “just maybe”, and so they chatted over coffee.  Today that lady is a market trader for CAP; 60 people have been helped through her, and 17 saved.

Hear the call, and remember.  “You never know”, “just maybe”, and if you want encouragement as to where those small things may lead, you need only look around at the lives that have been changed in and by this church.

Questions:

How can you keep that sense of urgency, that freshness, that readiness to believe that “You never know …” when something you do will be used by God?

How can you encourage or challenge others to step out thinking “just maybe”, and be encouraged or challenged in turn?

What can you do at “the next” opportunity to enlarge God’s kingdom?

·         Invite people round?

·         Speak to a work colleague?

·         Offer to pray?

·         Serve on a team?

14th May 2017 - Community Lee Layton-Matthews

Lee Layton-Matthew 14trh May 2017

Community

Lee started by sharing a Coca-Cola Advert (other soft drinks are available!) It starts off with people on the underground focusing on one man watching a movie on a tablet. He starts to laugh really loudly and very soon everyone starts to laugh. The tube turns into a community of people laughing

Lee stated that one person can change the atmosphere around us. You and I were designed to be in Community, we thrive with people.

Lee went onto share from Acts 2:42-47New International Version - UK (NIVUK)

The fellowship of the believers

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

What is community?

Gen 1:1-3a

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said

The Word became flesh – John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

To understand Community we need to understand that Everything was created out of the community of the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit

In true community we can love with all our love -  Agape

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end

 

In true community we Laugh and Cry

In true community we can doubt

John 20:24-2

Jesus appears to Thomas

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ 27 Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’28 Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29 Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’

Lee share the meaning of the word - Ubuntu

People are people through people

True Community brings LIFE

Questions:

Read Acts 2 42-27 – have you felt like you are in Community in Kerith?

If not – what are you doing to actively promote community in your life?

Have you had seasons of doubt? Do you feel able to share some doubts you have today?

Lee shared the advert from Coca Cola – how did that make you feel? Did you laugh? – how can you change the atmosphere in your office/school/neighbourhood tomorrow?

 

 

23rd April 2017 - Heather Pocock - ACTS WEEK 1

YouTube Church on a Mission discussions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiE7D8MwITM

 

• How do we live out our individual mission/ our mission as a church?
• How did the early church live out mission?

 

Vision Statement for Kerith Community Church: "Helping people find their way back to God through communities growing in their love for God and their love for people".

 

Companies like Nike, Google, Build-a-bear, Starbucks, United Airlines promote vision statements to describe what they are about, and they do what they set out to do.

• If we went out on the streets with our mission statement what would be the reaction? Would people feel like they would need God?

 

H: Hunger

                1^st part of our mission is to help people see they have a hunger for God.

                People need Jesus.

                God created Eden – paradise – every single person has a desire for Eden.

• SHALOM
  • Life should be better. People desire shalom.
  • Just look at tropical holiday photos, gadgets to solve stress, political statements…

Acts 3.6-7: ⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” ⁷ Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.

• The man didn’t think he needed God – he needed money, health… But Peter recognized and showed the man that he was really thirsting for Jesus. Jesus: Provider, restorer, repairer.
   

Acts 3.9-11: ⁹ When all the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. ¹¹ While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 

• The crowd also had a desire for God.
• But they were initially attracted to the gifts of Jesus – but that doesn’t satisfy. The giver is the one who satisfies.
  • Ecclesiastes 3.11: He has also set eternity in the human heart;
    “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” (CS Lewis)
  • I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. (U2)

 

E: Evil

2^nd part of mission is to recognize that evil and sin gets in the way and disrupts harmony.

Romans 6.23:  ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Acts 3.13-15: ¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. ¹⁴ You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. ¹⁵ You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

• Peter points out the sin and evil in the crowd’s heart.
  • How would you feel?
  • We have become an over affirmed society causing us to believe we are never wrong, and that we don’t need to acknowledge failings.

Romans 3.23 ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

• How do you respond to that verse?

We COMPARE ourselves to others: Personal story: Chatting to a friend about faith. They asked, ‘so you think I’m a sinner?’ But I’m not that bad.

We WAVER good over bad: Journalist interviewing Michael Bloomberg – ex-mayor of NY – “I’ve earnt my place”

We MINIMISE and LEGITIMISE our sin. Often finding someone else to blame.

If we COMPARE, WAVER, MINIMISE we will never experience the grace and truth of shalom.

• If the biggest sinner you know isn’t you then you probably don’t know you. The more we learn about the holiness of God the more we agree with this statement.
• Personal Story: Denial when you’re ill isn’t effective for getting well.
  • Augustine: My sin was all the more incurable because I did not think I was a sinner.
    • Where in my life am I refusing to take the cure?

L: Love

3^rd part of our mission is to tell/ show people that God loves them. He gave us a cure to the disease of sin. Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment.

Acts 3:19-20 ¹⁹ Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, ²⁰ and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

• God wants to give us “times of refreshing” – there is blessing in repentance.
• Messiah: someone who rescues us.

 

P: Pivot

4^th part of the mission is to act on God’s love and repent.

• Repent – turn away and return to God.

Acts 3.26 ²⁶ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

• What lifestyles do we need to turn away from, and return to Jesus?
• Martin Luther: ‘all of a Christian’s life is one of repentance’
• Personal Story: When I move to a new house/ when I am a mother I will be content!
  • We need to look to Jesus – only he will satisfy. Where are we looking for contentment?

H.E.L.P Through these stages we will be able to help people find their way back to God.

Prayer / Discussion
:Where are you looking to satisfy hunger/ wrongdoing?
God is so good to us – he desires us to live in paradise. Help us to recognize our hunger for you Jesus. Only you can satisfy – Reveal where we are reaching to other things. Show us where we are living in sickness

16th April 2017 - Simon Benham - EASTER SUNDAY

Easter Sunday 16^th April 2017 – Simon Benham

Happy Easter. If there's one day to celebrate its today. What better way to celebrate than baptisms. Dying to an old way of life - rising again to a new one.

If you were here for our Good Friday meeting you'll have heard Simon talk about Jesus as the greatest revolutionary leader who ever lived. That he came to lead a revolution, not to overthrow an external system of government but to give us a heart transplant. And how when he died on the cross, rather than marking the end of the revolution as happens with most revolutionaries, it was the act that made the revolution possible. That Jesus died that our sin might be forgiven.

The resurrection is not the reversal of a defeat but the manifestation of the victory Jesus won on the cross for you & me - Nicky Gumbel

If you had a window into the lives of the disciples that first Easter Sunday morning, they weren't celebrating Jesus victory. In their minds it was all over. Jesus had gone the way of so many other revolutionaries. They were in hiding from the authorities and planning on going back to their old lives. They'd had a great three years with Jesus, but sadly now it was all over. So now we come to the point on Easter Sunday where news of the revolution begins to break out!

READ Matthew 28:1-10

The revolution had begun. And its a revolution which continues to this day.

Today, all around the world over 2 billion people who call themselves followers of Jesus will be joining in this celebration. Later in this meeting we're going to witness ? people doing the thing Jesus commanded us to do as a sign of us joining his revolution. Getting baptised.

What is baptism? It's a public declaration where you're saying "I'm part of the revolution". Not only do I identify myself with Jesus death and resurrection, I too have experienced my own death and resurrection. I've died to my old way of life, the Bible calls it repenting, which means I've turned away from my sin. I've turned away from all the things in my life I put there in place of God, and I'm not turning towards Jesus, putting him in the centre.

Simon gave the opportunity for people to join the revolution too.

What was the nature of the revolution Jesus began? We get a huge clue from Jesus resurrection body.

At the resurrection Jesus wasn't just revived. We read stories of people who have near death experiences. Simon has a friend, John Burke, who gathers stories of people who have medically died and then been revived. Often they have very similar stories of what they experience. But when they are revived they still have the same body they had before. In Jesus ministry there was a guy called Lazarus, who died and after four days Jesus raises him to life again. But he comes back with the same body. Sometime later Lazarus dies again, this time for good.

We get a glimpse of what our resurrection bodies will be like when we recall Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances. He still had visible wounds, and His disciples could physically touch Him, yet He was able to travel effortlessly and appear and disappear at will. He could go through walls and doors yet could also eat and drink and sit and talk. Scripture informs us that our “lowly bodies” will be just “like His glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). Indeed, the physical limitations imposed by sin that hinder our ability to fully serve Him on earth will be forever gone, freeing us to praise and serve and glorify Him for eternity.

 

Suddenly in Jesus body we have a demonstration of the revolution. That the separation between heaven and earth has now been removed.

Then we see the conclusion of the revolution at the end of time. Revelation 21:1-4

 

Let our response to the risen Jesus be the same as that of the two women:

 

• There is no more important thing in life than to meet with Jesus. Not to become religious, not to find yourself, but to have a genuine encounter with the risen Jesus. Jesus didn't want the women just to have information about him, he wanted them to know him as a friend.
• Be filled with joy. It's hard to be afraid but happy. Happiness is generally dependant on our circumstances. There is something much deeper about joy. The joy of the Lord is your strength. To know you are free from guilt, free from shame, free from fear, your past is forgiven, your present has purpose and your future is secure.
• Worship him. Put him at the centre of your life. Make him your Lord.
• Go and tell others that you have seen him

 

When Jesus raises us from the dead we don't just revert back to what we should have been. He takes our brokenness, and makes it part of the new creation he is making us in to. He doesn't deny our past but redeems it and uses it to form part of the beauty of our future. Just as a mosaic forms something of incredible beauty from broken pieces, God forms beauty from our brokenness, both as individuals and as a community. As he takes each one of us and begins to form us into his church, into his bride.

 

QUESTIONS:

Are you putting Jesus at the centre of your life?

IS there an area of your life you need to hand to Him?

When was the last time you shared your testimony with someone?

Can you share your testimony with your group today?

 

9th April 2017 SPIRIT LED GENEROSITY. SOLA OSINOIKI

SMALL GROUP NOTES FROM SUNDAY 9 APRIL 2017. THEME – SPIRIT LED GENEROSITY. SOLA OSINOIKI

Before introducing Sola, Simon drew attention to the Vision Fund with Gift Days coming up on 23 and 30 April, and a week of 24-7 prayer between those dates. Simon also challenged us to fill up the front rows in church and be closer to the preacher!

Sola introduced his theme as ‘listening to God’s whispers leads to Spirit led generosity’.

QUESTION: What might this mean to you?

Sola’s prayer is that we might no longer see generosity in black & white, but in technicolour. To change our perspective.

READ: Hebrews 13:2.

QUESTION: Is hospitality optional?

READ: Genesis 18:1-8. Abraham shows spirit led generosity to 3 strangers. He gave them a feast even though he was unprepared and unready. Though Abraham didn’t actually eat with them. It was about emptying himself on behalf of others. Those 3 strangers were angels.

Sola shared a story of needing money for flights to Nigeria. He felt prompted to write on facebook ‘praying for a flight, prices are crazy’. A lady responded with £1000 to cover the flight. Soon after, she herself received £600 – and said she wouldn’t be surprised if the rest came back to her. Another £100 came in. Then a week later, her tax bill was a full £1000 less than she expected.

Message is that God is good. We can give and trust in faith. We cannot outgive God.

READ: Genesis 19:1-4. Lot knew that just inviting wasn’t enough, he urged them to come. Because of that dinner, Lot got the information for him and his family to be safe.

Sola spoke of not giving something cheap, the minimum, but of giving a feast.

Sola shared another story of when he stood in response to a preachers call for people in financial need to stand up. Shortly afterwards a young man knocked on his door with a cheque for £1000!

READ: John 4:10 from The Message Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

QUESTION: How does the generosity of God, who gave His only son, challenge me to rethink my own generosity?

READ: Acts 16:14-5. Lydia persuaded them to come.

Sola shared a story of visiting Madrid, looking for a church one Sunday morning. Having arrived by taxi, as a stranger, he felt prompted to bring some prophetic words. Then he was invited to share fellowship and a meal at a home – he was then given money to cover the taxi, and return train fare. Only in the kingdom of God could it happen to end up in the home of a stranger, sharing fellowship, and helping out in the kitchen to prepare food.

QUESTION: Do you have any stories of giving or receiving generosity which you could share with the group?

 

READ: Luke 22:7-13. The ‘man’ that Jesus told them to follow, culturally shouldn’t have been carrying a jar at all! God provides the practical needs (a room), and God sees all things before they happen.

QUESTION: Are people led to find their practical needs met if they follow me? It depends on how much I am being led by listening to God’s whispers. I may not know the impact or consequence.

Sola shared a story of getting 100 dollars out of a cash machine. A woman behind him wasn’t able to get out any cash, and Sola felt prompted to give her whatever she asked for. It was 50 dollars. He doesn’t know the impact, but challenged us to just obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

If you want the Holy Spirit to help your own spirit of generosity, then ask for that help. To be the one in tune with the God’s whisper and therefore the one worth following.

QUESTION: Would you spend a few minutes in quietness seeking the help of the Holy Spirit in being generous?