jesus name we pray a man so it start with a question today it's a simple question is your generosity is it growing or is it shrinking and we're going to turn to a passage that's inspiring this is second c so easier to find second corinthians chapter nine starting in verse six and the apostle paul is writing to this church in corinth they're really new in the face i mean they've been doing everything that i was as not to do  and now there's like started to learn about the faith and how to grow in their faith not to live it out so this is what paul tells them in second grade the instructor nine starting in verse six remember this whoever so sparingly will also reaps sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reaped generously each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give not reluctantly here under compulsion for a god loves a cheerful giver and god is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things at all times having all that you need you will abound in every good work as it is written he has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor and his righteousness endures forever 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 you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to god so what a passage a lot is said there are some you're thinking wait a minute are we going to talk about finances here true true that with the whole thing they did you know and in frisco class yes yes so true there's over eight hundred passages and handling finances in the bible so if you're new here and you're thinking oh do they talk about this all the time no no but at the same time do we skip over what the bible says no not at all so if we don't see what god's thoughts and ways are then we just do whatever our parents did we do whatever the culture's doing or whatever the world teaches us and so this is a chance to step back and reimagine some generosity it's amazing how a room can change we basically have three resources right god gives us number one he gives us time and when people hear about that they say yes let's talk about time management i really want to use my time well in so there's excitement and then you say he also gives us abilities and talents and we say yes i want to discover those what are those what are some exciting opportunities for those you know we say and here's th third it's our finances and we go wait a minute you're trying to get my money and so yes or the concept of you know unselfish and we all say yes to unselfish yes to generosity yes yes yes except finances i'm not so sure about that concept of generosity so we got to these attitudes shags i realize it's a topic that's pretty loaded there's different landmines some people have had some bad experiences but the ultimate in all this there's words god's thoughts god's ways how can we be more like jesus and what kind of generosity is the bible talking about why is it so good where does it come from and we try to figure this out together so i don't expect a lot of a man's today that's all right we're just sav next week save ok so let's start today with some generosity truths some things that are true about generosity first one is this if you believe the bible you will become generous and you will grow in your generosity now what does it mean to believe the bible two things to believe means number one it's true but the second part is i'm in i'm in it's kind of like when you hear the gospel of jesus christ he's diversity and he's risen whoever puts their trust in him through grace not works or performance you believe in jesus and you have eternal life well what does it mean to believe is it just to know that some facts are true about him being risen intellectually be aware that that's not believe in the bible believe is to know the facts about jesus his substitutional death and resurrection but also to say i'm in i put my trust in him so again we say believe the bible it's really is it true and are you in so generous that word four times in this passage and it's right from god's heart he's so generous and it becomes part of our heart to be generous god loves a cheerful giver  you know when the last time you had a really good laugh i mean it's just joy from the belly you know is that would you feel like about being this xian or his stuff is so he gets is that how you feel i'll just admit i wrestle with that tearful giving when god's asked me to give certain gifts or bigger gifts there's a part of me that goes oh say let me count that again let me think through the reasons why that might not be a good idea to be generous and there's part of me that's just it's a shift for me sometimes to go from you know yes lord i trust you generosity is good that's just a shift for me that's how i'm wired ok some of you you just have to give the giving it's just like more more than generous like i'm preaching the choir for some people so my kids are helpful in this because those see someone on the street  clearly doesn't have much in they'll say from the back seat of the car dad let's give them some food they're cool we give them some food and my wife is so great in she has such a gift of mercy and she's always making food packs for the car so we can just be you know handing out food when we see so many need but i was just thinking about that child's heart that so sincere and so generous just like couldn't we give them some food and i think that's what this passage is talking with that sincerity that generosity that care where it's just overflowing you say couldn't we make a difference right here dad so that's the meaning here's a second principle money is really about managing and also realizing the potential money you think of managing the word stewardship that you hear a lot what is a steward a steward is a manager in so what is a manager do a manager takes care of something that is not their own property  managers i know i've you know had experiences with different ones they'll be an owner of a house we rented for so many years and they would be an owner of the house and then there's the property manager the property manager is you know the one who's carrying out what someone else owns so all of us in terms of all of our finances and now a medal in the question is who's are they who's are they in so if we're managers which what the bible says then we have a responsibility in how we manage but it really boils down to this ultimate question are our finances are they are or are they gods in some people push back and they say wait a minute i was the one who were nine to five i was the one who applied for the job i was the one w but then the question is will who gave you the job who gave you the strength who gave you the health who gave you the motivation so all every god is the source of every good gift in so everything we have house clothes finances food all alternately belongs to god that's really important to settle if you never settle that your mind does it belong to you are you the ultimate owner or is god the ultimate owner and it's a paradigm shift but it's so important when you think about you know anything we have and i'll tell you it's good for relationships too because if you think you own somebody that is not healthy you know that person your spouse your friend your child they are gods they are ultimately gods and then that's free when you say i don't have to be responsible for all those levite like you trying to play god in your relationships are you trying to play god in different areas or life are you saying no let god be god it belongs to him and then that's freeing and that takes pressure off of the other person and for you too so we think about this kind of stewardship management here's some starting points some things that don't happen so often in our culture but good things in terms of managing number one this isn't a fill in the blank but just live within your means live within your means is it good to have a budget i think it's good i'm not going to be able to turn to a bible passage and say you know that i must have a budget  but it is good i think why because it saves a lot of arm wrestling have you ever noticed that in marriage one of the major stress points finances finances if there is no budget well i want to buy this i don't want to buy that i don't think we should i want to why can't we were in the store people are watching you know you're you get the idea right it's so it's like it's so much users it's like well here's the budget we both agreed upon does that fit into the budget yes it does what looks like a good purchase oh it doesn't ok well then let's wait and save up and down the road and you see how it just simplified some of that arm wrestling so living within your means the bible says in proverbs that if someone is greedy it brings trouble extra stress on the family ingredients so subtle because we say well the whole culture is greedy i don't mind being greedy but greed not living within our means puts extra strain on a family here's a second thing is to understand how destructive debt in bad interest rates really are destructive debt in bad interest rates are the norm in our culture but we need to look at again proverbs twenty two seven the one who borrows is servant to the one who owns in so again the bible gives us so many insights that we don't want to ignore when i step back and think a big picture in our finances for the nation have you ever noticed the size of our debt  down you know i mean you know many trillions we have in debt right now so finances are you know a big deal in terms of how you handle finances well what about the average american i was looking at some stats this week and again we're so prosperous as a nation but when you boil down the numbers it's interesting because i read that you know the average american has you know far more than two hundred thousand dollars in debt you know the more than forty percent of americans have less than five hundred dollars saved so it tells you you know like we're not saving a lot we have a lot of debt seventy over seventy percent are just living paycheck to paycheck and i'm not bring in judgment or guilty i'm just bringing some stats about why this is the one that jumped out to me that the average american has fifty over fifteen thousand dollars of credit card debt and the interest rates are on average about fifteen percent wow what happens when you have fifteen thousand dollars a day and fifteen percent it makes it a lot harder to be generous you know a lot of people want to be generous and different things but then i'm like well what do i do with my situation right here in so again i think it's so practical what the scripture says and how the scripture guides us so managers but also managers who see potential in this passage we had an agricultural example it's really you know in the natural sowing and reaping we might not all be you know an agricultural setting might be a lot more urban but i think we all understand sowing and reaping we've all visited iowa we've all you know bend of places where you know there's corn everywhere you understand the concept and so we all have seeds what do you do with seeds you can throw seeds away you can hide seeds you not really plant them you can place seeds and you can have a bad placement and there's not much harvest or you plant in water seeds in good soil and there's a harvest in so so sparingly reap sparingly so generously reap generously agricultural it's also in terms of our resources so what does this passage help us to do be intentional reflect check our priorities our resources and our finances whether we like it or not always reflect our priorities you say well what someone's real priorities are here what they're saying well you just check you know finances finances don't really lobby and so it was a howard hendricks thing it's like don't tell me what your priorities are just give me your checkbook that's what that's what howard injects would say it's not me how hendrix think through this maybe some good changes and ultimately what's our goal be faithful to god do things god's way which brings glory to god which blesses more people and it's the way of generosity here's a third aspect agenda to generosity truth stinginess debt and greed can steal your joy those three things can steal your joy i was reading a clip about inky who's a little octopus in new zealand and enki he kind of pulled a neemo and the people who are responsible for taking care of me they left the lead the lid off just a little bit ink you noticed i'm not saying he's watched finding nemo or any of the neemo movies but you know he just had saw the leaves off crawled out of his container of his aquarium there across the floor because the keeper they found the trail the next day across the floor over to the drain the drain leads to the ocean and inky is never seen again he is gone he's like this is my you got it he's back in the ocean now why do i say that sometimes stinginess greed in debt can be like a trap in the culture you know just kind of promotes it in we have to see that opportunity crawl out of that place and go into a place of more freedom and peace so with that i would say when when you think of the norm in our culture here's two phase of written words in our culture two favorite words one of them is me and the other one is more say what's our philosophy in this culture many more and without even realizing it that's just the rhythm that's the polls and we think well isn't that how you do life maze standard and more for me so what a trap what a trap that is stinginess if i had to do a word picture i would say stinginess is like a straight jacket as i feel good have a straight jacket on it steiff ins are potential in what god has for us in through us stinginess is like a straight jacket listen to proverbs chapter eleven verse twenty four the man who or the woman who gives freely yet gains even more another withhold unduly but comes to poverty a generous man or woman will prosper and he who refreshes others will himself be refresh the people curse the man who hoards grain but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell brandy of corn speaks often about heaven and gives us heavenly perspective of our finances calls it a pilgrim mentality pilgrim meaning we're just passing through we didn't enter into this world with anything we're not taking anything with us into heaven so he says the more holdings we have on earth the more likely we are to forget that we're citizens of another world not this one in that our inheritance lies there in here so excessive things can distract and burden people unnecessary things can slow our journey even forcing us to stop so we need to be able to live in a house without being owned by the house if god so directs us as he has with many of his disciples we need to be able to leave behind a farm or a business or a house without going back now dads can be like spikes chained to our legs and driven into the ground making us unresponsive to god's call to serve him in the raging culture of our current there is unbelief insecurity pride idolatry desire for power and control in the illusion that this earth is our home we're where we choose to store or treasures depends largely on where we think our home is so so much comes down to this question where's your home where is your home it's another paradigm shift kind like who does it all to me belong to all timidly where's our home in these are important big picture things now is it good to have a plan yes most americans they don't have a plan and they're scared scared about finances scared about money no plan in so we again come to god into his word i would say three words in this passage that are so important in verse eight god able god is able and with that generosity there is a three fold blessing when your generous first year so blessed what a joy to be generous number to the recipient is also what a joy in then god's heart is full of joy when his children are cheerful givers who care in our generous to meet the needs of other people so it's really we're talking about great great blessings and a heavenly perspective so in this last part of the message let's take a look at overflowing with generosity second corinthians chapter nine drop down to verse twelve overflowing with generosity paul writes this this service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of god's people but it is also overflowing in many expressions of thinks to god because of the service by which you have proved yourselves men will praise god for the a b d s that accompanies your confession of the gospel of christ and for your generosity in sharing with him and with everyone else in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace god has given to you what a great deal i mean blessing other people they are thinking god their overflowing with gratitude i mean you just see the progression of what's happening here so here's the principle as your love of money decreases your love for people increases as you love things less you love people more in a very materialistic culture we have the temptation to love our things more and people less in so the bible flips that and says people yeah the love of money now and they are watching our program today and i want to let you know about our web site activate life died or you can send us your prayer requests are honored to pray for you we also have daily devotions and other resources you can sign up for and if you want to support us financially you can do that through the website now will get back to the teaching as we get into god's word together see it's not a do we have enough in this world it's a generosity peace that ties in and you say what about the gospel and spiritual needs two billion people have not heard about jesus christ two billion people do we have the technology internet radio television do we have the people willing to go yes again do we have all the resources yes can we reach those two million to be billion yes so again it's the heart it starts in the heart so physical needs are important spiritual needs are important you know both are significant it's becoming more popular just to see the physical needs but don't lose sight of the spiritual needs in people's lives in what can be done there so what does god do he being financial peace is about a quit being so what does god do he gives us his ways his heart's his priorities he starts to give us abilities and desires and wisdom he is jova gyra he is our provider and he provides for us so that we can provide for others jesus about a third of the parables have to do with handling resources look at the gospels they estimate about a sixth of all the gospels handling resources jesus talked about this stuff all the time and when you're reading through the bible it's like why does he do that spends a jesus talks more about handling resources than he does even about heaven so like wow that's pretty significant because again where the managers and he's trying to equip us as the managers say well it's a phase step to be generous yeah sometimes you get to see the effects we watched the video where that waitress was just blown away by the generosity and sometimes you get to see it you know in our church we are people who bring meals to people in need and you get to see their appreciation and it's awesome when you get to see someone on the receiving end but so often with what we give n what i give what you give you don't get to see it this side of heaven this side of heaven but by faith you just know you know some lives are being change in then when heaven comes you know people are going to be coming over you're going to be thanking people people are going to be thanking you i mean it's going to be a celebration thanksgiving with glory to god but that's what paul keeps saying the celebration that they are giving the meeting of needs it just keeps increasing with generosity this you will never have a regret when you're generous you might have initially hesitation but long term you never have a regret here's the closing verse paul gives us that second great the ends chapter nine verse fifteen here's the basis here's the inspiration thanks be to god for he is indescribable gift at the end of this passage paul points right to jesus and says god his given us his son in so all of this stuff we're talking about is a response to what god gives us first it's all worship response thanksgiving response generosity response we are the responders god's the initiator look at this indescribable gift god gives here's a thought for a question for going home with which is your mindset how could we be more generous and give more  how could we be giving less you know because some of your own type of ten percent may go but how could we get that down to three percent do we have to still give you know that's a mindset that's what christians are at today or wow what if we're in the old testament you read them all the offerings like the type was kind of a start and there's these other offerings and they're just meeting more needs and they're excited and growing and it's this generosity that they're praying and thinking and talking through so i'll close with  just real brief examples katie started in her garden cabbage more and more cabbage giving it to suit kitchen and she realised she could have a huge garden so a huge garden thousands of pounds  vegetables could take it to the soup kitchen now she's up to six massive gardens taking the food to the soup kitchens and here's the kicker katie is eleven years old in c is getting more of her friends to start thinking about with they could do to feed people who are hungry there's a guy named bruno who has a well known restaurant and yes celebrities come that in california celebrities calm in presidents of com well known restaurant but bruno started out and it wasn't so well known but he decided early on when he looked around his neighborhood and saw all the kids that didn't have food he said this is what's going to happen in my restaurant any child whose parents can't bring the food they can come in have a meal free at my restaurant any of the kids sometimes he was sort of more kids than customers and then as the restaurant grew he now takes more food into the community and boys and girls clubs and just gives out so much food but he started early on that decision to be generous and i'll also mention allen in violet that they won the lottery eleven million dollars they won the lottery you know how much they kept zilch zilch so they gave it family members people who had cancer church they just started to find these different places and people they really wanted to bless and you know what they said they said we don't miss what we never had all our lives that's what they said they said we were content before we won the lottery we're content without the eleven million in they've just blessed everybody so it's a different mindset it's a reimagined god's indescribable gift that word in greek it's the only place in the bible i listed unable to fully tell we're unable to recount how much god has given us in jesus christ here's a take on god's indescribable gift moves reluctant hearts into the freedom of compassion it's freedom to have compassion and generosity let's pray father god we realize that on a topic like this there's a lot of experiences feelings mindsets landmines in order to we just step back and look at where your word says look at what your heart reimagine as we manage as we see potential this reimagine god would you change us as we see the culture is me more stingy more debt  greed in it's running rampant it's just the norm would you help us god to be different in this world and to represent you well and to set an example in this area of our lives we're so grateful god how you stir us and we also pray lord if someone here doesn't know you for the first time they can make the decision to follow jesus lord and savior there never be a greater gift than the gift of eternal life in the forgiveness of sins through not just the facts but the person of jesus christ put your trust in him and we praise you and worship you together in your name one thanks for watching today and i want to let you know about our web site activate life that org there's so many free resources to help you grow in your faith and if you've been blessed during the teaching please send us an e mail if you want to learn more about jesus we'd love to hear from you again our web site is active a life that org and we'll see you next week