Generosity

A lot of people think that the gift giving idea at Christmas time was started by the wise men, because as we know they brought the first gifts to the baby Jesus in the manger. 

But actually, the first gift at Christmas was the gift that God gave.  God so loved the world that he gave.  And the very first Christmas gift was God himself – Jesus giving himself to you to die on the cross for your sins so you could have your past forgiven, a purpose for living and a home in heaven.  Jesus is the original Christmas gift.  We only give because God gave to us first.

2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV , “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.”  

Acts 15:11 (MSG) “We are saved because the Master Jesus amazingly and out of sheer generosity moved to save us...” 

If it weren’t for God’s generosity you and I would have nothing.  The air you breathe is a gift of God’s generosity.  The blood coursing through your veins is a gift of God’s generosity.  The fact that your heart is beating is a gift of God’s generosity.  Every good thing in your life that you have including your life is a gift of God’s generosity.  If God was not a generous God, we wouldn’t even exist.  The universe would not exist.  It exists because of his generosity.

John 1:16 (MSG) “We all live off God’s generous bounty, gift after gift after gift.”

·       Christmas is about generosity.  It’s not just about compassion.

·       This generosity like the generosity of God must be all year round.

God emphasizes this quality more than almost any other quality in life. 

There’s a right way to be generous and there’s a wrong way.  There are ways that you can give that will help and heal and develop people.  And there are ways that you can give that will hurt and harm and hinder people.  We’ve all seen parents or relatives ruin their kids through generosity.  We’ve all seen that.  We know what it is.  There’s a right way to be generous and there’s a wrong way to be generous.

There are only two kinds of people in life.  There are givers and there are takers. 

There is more in the Bible about generosity than there is about heaven.  There’s more in the Bible about generosity than there is about hell.  Jesus spoke far more about generosity than he did about either heaven or hell.

study of the key words of the Bible.

·       The word “believe” –272 we know it’s important to believe.  The word “believe” is only used 272 times in the Bible.  Just 272 times!

·       The word “pray” – 371 we know it’s important to pray, is used 371 times in the Bible.  About a hundred times more than believe. 

·       The word “love” -714 is used 714 times in the Bible.

·       But the word “give”-2162 is used 2,162 times.  Why?  Because God wants us to learn to be generous.  He wants us to learn to be like him.

WHY I MUST BE GENEROUS

1.   IT MAKES ME MORE LIKE GOD

Psalm 37:21 (NLT) “The godly are generous givers.” 

1 Chronicles 29:14 (LB) “Everything we have has come from you Lord, and we can only give you what is yours already!" 

2 Corinthians 9:13 (NLT) “You will be glorifying God through your generous gifts. For your generosity to them will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ. “

·       God wants you to learn to be generous too.   God is generous and he wants his children to be generous.

·       Do you want your kids to learn to be generous?  Do you want them to learn to be unselfish? 

·       Generosity to be a lifestyle not a seasonal event.  I want it to be a habit of your life.

·       Generosity is a skill.  Most people aren’t very good at it.  It’s a skill that you can learn. 

·       God says I want you to learn to be generous because it makes you more like me.  It makes you godly.

Karl Menninger, the founder of the famous Menninger Psychiatric Clinic in Olathe, Kansas said this: “After all of our studies we discovered that generosity is one of the essential components of mental health.  We found that generous people are rarely mentally ill.”

2.   IT’S A CURE FOR SELFISHNESS

·       It’s not easy to be generous in a very materialistic, self-centered culture.

·       We live in a very materialistic culture.

·       We live in a society that says get all you can, can all you get, get it all, have it all, want it all.

Proverbs 18:1 “It's selfish and stupid to think only of yourself.” 

Proverbs 1:18-19 (NLT) “The greedy set an ambush for themselves; they booby-trap their own lives! It is the fate of all who are greedy. It ends up robbing them of life.”

3.   IT DEEPENS RELATIONSHIPS

2 Corinthians 9:11-12 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.

 Matthew 6:21 (NCV) “Your heart will be wherever your treasure is.” 

“When I give my heart grows bigger.  When I give, I grow more like God.  Every time I’m generous I become more spiritually mature.  I have a spiritual victory in my life.” Wrick Warren.

There is a story of a man who borrowed his neighbor's blower, when he told the neighbor that he could afford and he needed to buy his own vacuum, the neighbor said, “no please don’t buy a vacuum, I like the relationship the lending you a vacuum has built.”

4.   IT STRETCHES MY FAITH

·    “Your giving proves the reality of your faith...”

2 Corinthians 9:13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 

2 Corinthians 9:6 (NIV) “Whoever sows sparingly will  reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”  

5.   IT BLESSES ME BACK

Deuteronomy 15:10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

Psalm 112:5 “Good will come to those who are generous...” 

Proverbs 11:24 (NLT) “It is possible to give freely and become more wealthy, but those who are stingy will lose everything.” 

 Proverbs 11:25 (NIV) “A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” 

6.   IT’S AN INVESTMENT FOR ETERNITY

·     “Use your worldly resources to benefit others…

·       In this way, your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven.”

1 Timothy 6:18-19 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

 Luke 16:9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

HOW TO DEVELOP A GENEROUS HEART

·     YOU MUST REALIZE IT’S NOT ABOUT HOW MUCH I GIVE

“If you’re really eager to give, it isn't important how much you are able to give.”

2 Corinthians 8:12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.

 2 Corinthians 9:7-8 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

True and Authentic Generosity is...

THOUGHTFUL-Abigail was a thoughtful giver.

1 Samuel 25:29-35 Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. ³⁰ When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, ³¹ my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”

³² David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. ³³ May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. ³⁴ Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”³⁵ Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”

VOLUNTARILY /CHEERFULLY-They gave voluntarily and generously to build the temple.

 1 Chronicles 29:7-14 They gave toward the work on the temple of God five thousand talents[a] and ten thousand darics[b] of gold, ten thousand talents[c] of silver, eighteen thousand talents[d] of bronze and a hundred thousand talents[e] of iron. 8 Anyone who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the temple of the Lord in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite. 9 The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly.

 BLESSED TO BLESS .

 2 Corinthians 9:10-11 Now he who supplies seed to the Sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

 WHO ARE WE NOT TO GIVE?

2 Corinthians 8:9 “Remember the generosity of Jesus Christ, the Lord of us all. He was rich beyond our telling, yet he became poor for your sake so that his poverty might make you rich.”