How To Be Generous As A Christian
TRANSCRIPT
Imagine if you wake up tomorrow morning and there's a savings account, it contains all the money that you've ever put away or wasted that only ever wore once item, you know, or bad debted away or, you know, those things that we never do. But those things that you really wish you hadn't have done. And imagine if that.
Whatever happened to that thing, money, came into your account all of a sudden but there was a catch. The catch was you could only give it away. Over time or straight away, whatever, you could only do that with it. Imagine how much money there might be in that account. Some of you young people, I'm sure it's right up there.
But you've got to imagine for a moment what it would be like if we could undo. some of the things that we've done with our money and reapplied it. I think it'd be a bit fun really having that access to all those funds. Well, here we are in part five of a six part series. It called, you'll be glad you did.
And we've all lived long enough, as we've said, to reap the benefits or otherwise of our decisions. And some of them come in this category. I'll be glad I did, or I wish I had. Or I'm glad I didn't, and I wish I hadn't. So, there's the thing we're looking at at the moment, and we're bringing unoriginal advice for what it would be that you'll be glad you did.
And part of it is advice. That means it's not rules. It's not moral or ethical imperatives we're talking about. It's things that you might think are pretty clever. It's interesting that if you want to find clever, you go to someone who might have had the intelligence to design us in the first place.
So we're going back to God. It's advice that will help ensure that you don't break the rules, That have the potential to break you or break your heart Or cause you to go broke. So we're thinking about things we can do better. This advice sits between rules. It's not the right versus wrong. It's not legal versus illegal.
It's not even moral versus immoral. It remains in that mystical area called wisdom. Alright, so we're going for the wisdom, the wise thing to do. What is wisdom? We define it this way. It's insights informed by the knowledge that life is connected. Everything has a connection. What we do today will pay dividends tomorrow, one way or the other.
Whether they be good dividends or not, what you see and think plant today will become alive later on. So you'll be glad you did in this area. We've said so far, you'll be glad you listened. Pay attention to yourself and to what God wants to say to you. You'll be glad you did as we talked a little bit earlier, forgive, forgive yourself, forgive others.
Find God's side of that equation. You'll be glad you went the distance as Pastor Kev talked to us last week about equality. In our relationship and how that matters on both sides submit to one another as we submit to Christ So there's a reason why we can submit to one another and my part today Live is this you'll be glad you did Live generous I know there's an ly missing there, but I want you to think more about a lifestyle than an act live generous Don't just live generously occasionally.
And let me explain that a little bit more. This type of giving today is life giving generosity. Live generous and you'll give more, you'll save more, and you'll consume less. Live generous and you'll be less consumed. Now, we don't just live in a consumer culture, we have a culture that consumes us. If you own anything large, have you got a caravan?
Have you got a boat? Have you got a house? How often do you feel consumed by those things? You know, I've got to use this, I've paid so much money on it. I've got, instead of parking it in the yard for a whole year and taking the boat out once a year. You know, things consume us. The things we own take over.
Today I'll attempt to teach you how to live generous, not how to give. Everyone can relax. Live generous, not how to give. And everybody gives, which masks the fact that we may not know How to live generous. Now it's time for that official warning right now. You know, it goes like this. The information contained in this talk may be provided as general advice only.
And, you know, darn good advice though. And the contents of being prepared without taking account of your objectives, financial institutions, or situations, before making any decision regarding any information or strategies mentioned in this talk, you should consult your financial advisor to consider whether this appropriate has regard to your own objectives.
And the exits are there and there. And in the case of an emergency, emergency funds will fall from the sky. No, we have to give those advices because, you know, my experience has been, my first job was with the ANZ bank. Imagine 16 years old and I've got a gun. That's right. Every teller when I started had a gun under the, I was 16 in charge of a weapon.
It made me shake. And then after that, many years later, I got to work for the national bank. And in between time, when I wasn't pastoring, which was most of that time, I was doing tax and accounting. So I have some advice I could give, but I'm not. I'm not going in that direction at all. You see, Aussies confuse generosity with random acts of giving.
It's like this. That's not really generosity. Just a random act of giving. It's similar to how you define ourselves as good people. I did something good once, so I'm good, right? I was generous once, so I must be a generous person. Well, it's why we can't win an argument with our spouse. As soon as they start to accuse you of something, you can remember that one time.
I can remember, it might have been two years ago, when I started the dishwasher myself, without being asked. So don't argue to me about you never. So that's how we're going with this generosity. I'll say, you know, are you living generously? And you'll say, I can remember a time. Well, that's not what we're talking about.
That isn't it. Our confusion regarding generosity is fuelled by four myths. And let's get started. Number one, generosity is spontaneous. No, giving spontaneously is being spontaneous. Greedy people give spontaneously when it serves their purposes. Spontaneous giving is often emotion based. And my experience is, like a good salesman, if you don't get them right there and then, if they haven't got the money right now, if they say, I'll do it later, Yeah, that's that generosity going.
That's how it works. Number two, generosity is regulated primarily by cash flow. We've all been there. Spontaneous giving, yes, but not generosity. Maybe you've said, I'm sorry. I just can't help right now. It's out of my reach. Okay, we think we're generous. We'd like to be generous, but honestly, we're not. It's really not convenient right now, so I don't think I will be.
So you wanted to be, sorry, you wanted to, but you weren't in a position to. What you had at the moment determined whether you could give. You've been in that situation. What if we flip that around somehow? What if we're always ready to give? Like we had some margin, something prepared for that occasion when the, the call and requests came out.
People who live generous avoid that predicament. They are ready to give. Number three, the myth is, the amount is what counts. Well, this is totally false. In fact, amounts are relative. They don't determine anything about generosity. Amounts require context to be understood correctly. And now Jesus addressed this directly one day when he was in this beautiful temple in in Jerusalem.
And we have it right here in our scriptures, if you want to look at Luke 21. And here's what it says. As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. And then he goes on, he says, he also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. Truly I tell you, he said, this poor widow has put in more Than all the others.
The implication here is that she gave more than everybody else, gave everyone combined, hadn't given as much as what she had given. Is that, what sort of math is that the disciples would've been thinking? What sort of maths is that? God? Well, it's kingdom mass. It's the, the kind of mass that impresses God, you know, he's not impressed with amounts.
He's impressed with percentages. What's the difference? Well, let's go on. Jesus explains this in the next verse. He says all these people Gave their gifts out of their wealth their surplus But she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on. I'm going to pass the offering now. You know, this is how churches sometimes try to manipulate you.
But we're, unfortunately, in the church where your generosity is between you and God. Always will be. But what is God saying to us individually? This woman was the most generous person at the temple that day. When it comes to generosity, the amount doesn't count, the percentage counts. Let's have a look at the fourth myth.
Rich people are generous people. No, rich people are rich. Generous people are generous. There isn't necessarily a correlation. Poor people are often far more generous than wealthy people, especially proportionately. They aren't saving to get ahead. It's impossible, they think. We're never going to get that house.
They're just here trying to survive. So, yeah, if there's a need, I can They are often more sensitive to the needs of others who are also living on the edge. So what does generous living look like? If you take and apply this advice, you'll be glad you did. Well, you will be less consumed and controlled by our culture of consumption.
This is the way forward. This is the way. For some of you, this is easier than you, because you were raised that way. Some of you come from a Christian background and you already believe and understand the more you give, the more God blesses. But some of us, we haven't been raised that way, and it's very counter culture.
So here's a definition for you of generous living. Generous living is the premeditated, calculated, designated, Emancipation of financial assets. Don't worry if you haven't written it down, it'll come up again here. Right. Generous living. First word is premeditated. Alright. In murder, you know, there's two types.
The one that just happened and the one that I thought about a long time. Well, generous people have a plan. A generosity plan, that is. Without a plan, you cannot and won't live generous. You'll be a consumer and at the mercy of what you have left. You'll be what we call a triple S giver. Spontaneous, sporadic, generous.
Well, it sounds like a ranch. Triple S. You will never give as much as you can without a plan. Now I like this, Andy Stanley, who created this message series, talks about a book that he read from Ronald Blue, and it's called The Mastery of Your Money. There are basically, he says, five things you can do with your money.
Get ready, checklist. Number one, spend it. Number two, repay debts. Transcript Number three, pay your taxes. That's biblical. Number four, save it. Number five, give it. So let's reanalyze this list a bit more closely. When we look at it, spend it. Well, that's me pay my debts. That's me paying my taxes. That's me.
They're my taxes after all. And there's saving it. Well, that's for me later. And then if I have any left, others last, give it. It's pretty confronting when you look at it that way, isn't it? When you look at your budget, Oh, you don't have one. That's okay. If you have looked at your statement, you never look at it.
Okay. If you just look back at how you've been living. And you'll be able to prioritize which way this list is running for you. If others are last and you put yourself ahead of everyone else, that's common sense. If you call yourself a Christian though, or a Jesus follower, you cannot live this way. Why?
This is a reflection of you and you're not following Jesus. You may pray, you may believe, you may be angry that I'm saying this, but if you are not giving others first. Then you're not actually following the example of Christ. It's the antithesis of how Jesus lived. Jesus was an other's first person, to the full extent that he gave his whole life.
Just read the Gospels, okay? It'll tell you. You cannot follow Jesus if other people are lost in the capacity you have to give. That's the whole idea of following Jesus. Where your treasure is, your heart is. And where your heart goes, your treasure follows. Jesus knew this and he didn't need anybody's money.
Remember, Jesus is saying these things. He doesn't want to get rich. He's not going to live long enough to spend it. He wasn't interested in building a kingdom with lots of money. He relied upon the generosity of God through women, of all things. Women would give their to him. Men, others would support him.
He understood the power of money and he also understood that if Father's kingdom was going to be first in a practical way in our life then that means others would be first. So don't worry, I'm not judging you. This goes to me as well. How well am I putting others first in the way I deal with my money, my resources?
If you live this way long enough as a Christian, you'll be a hypocrite eventually. Why? Because somewhere along the way you're going to come to a need point. And what are you going to do? You're going to pray. What sort of prayer will you offer up? You'll be saying, Lord, I'm inviting you into my finances.
Now, eventually, you know, Lord, I need to sell the house a good price, please. You know, I need that job Lord. And all the time God knows before we ask what we need. But he's looking at our heart and he's wondering, why have you waited till now to invite me into your finance? Why have you waited to the end before you really needed something?
To have my direction. You need to reverse that order to be a follower of Jesus. Now, to do not, not to do this is to treat your saviour like an ATM machine. A helper. Not the king of your life. Isn't that confronting? We do it all the time, don't we? We get to the desperate place and we say, God, put the code in, prayed the right prayer, out comes a resource.
Isn't that the way it should work? And what's the point of being a Christian if you can't get something back, right? It's very subtle, but that's the way we can live if we're not careful. So generous living must be premeditated and God honoring people decide, pre decide, pre decide a lot of things. But especially generous people pre decide an amount or percentage to give.
What do I mean? Well a percentage is best because it goes up and down with your income. If you're on a low income, that's okay. Just Mind that percentage. And if you increase in income, mind that percentage. Don't change it. Keep on being as generous. A percentage is the best. Pick a percentage, set it aside, and give it first.
So it puts others first. People with a plan have pre decided what percentage goes out for others. Jesus words were, Seek first the percentage. Kingdom of God. Then all these other things will be added to you. How, somehow we've got in our minds that that applies to everything except the way I give. You know, it's really screwed around, isn't it?
No matter how much money you earn, having a plan, picking a percentage and choosing where it goes puts the joy in giving. It will impact everything else that you do financially. Besides, we never miss the money that we give away. Thank you for listening. When was the last time you gave something away and thought, Oh, I shouldn't have done that.
No, it doesn't work that way. So we've looked at premeditated and calculated, and it should be also designated. Not just thrown to the air, it'll land somewhere good, but actually determined, designated. Generous people have already decided where to give ahead of time. Don't wait to be asked. You decide, and here's how to decide how to designate your giving.
Some principles to help you give from a grateful heart. You know, why give grudgingly to something you don't believe in? Give with a grateful heart and a broken heart. Sit down and ask yourself personally or as a family, what is it that we are grateful for? You know, where are we going to put this resource that God put in our hands to repay some of the beauty and the debt we owe to the joy of living with God?
Choose an organization you get something from and are grateful for. If you and your family are grateful for your local church, and this is not a plug, support your church financially. If not, find one that you can. Here's permission. Just give the way God wants you to. With a grateful heart. Everybody should have a plan for how they intend to support their church financially.
If you're grateful and you don't express it, you're ungrateful, really. Should I say that again? If you're grateful and you don't express it, you're ungrateful, really. If your son or daughter or grandchild attends a church near the university they're going to, support that church for sowing into their lives.
Bless them. Whatever it is that really you're grateful for. If you have a plan and a designated percentage, it's painless because you pre decided and you've just been waiting for the opportunity to spend that money. Now, this may not be sounding like the way you've done life so far. That's alright. We're in the wisdom zone here.
I'm not saying this is the way I've always done it. I'm the way I'm learning to do life with Christ. Give from a heart that is grateful and broken. What am I grateful for? What breaks my heart? Now, we have to be careful, honestly, because the manipulative type of things we see on telly, particularly about starving children and so forth, We may be tempted to take every ad and put some money into everything, right?
Or you can pre decide which one of those needs really breaks your heart. Everyone's different, so everyone will feel a drawing. It may be something that helps women that are escaping bad relationships, you know? It could be children that are down and out like a Smith family. It could be those that are on the mission field working with education.
It could be all sorts of needs, but what breaks your heart? What, when you see it brings a tear literally to your eye, they're the things that are so easy to give to, you know, you need to find an organization. and designate money to go there monthly. Make it a regular thing. It's better to give to a lot to a few places than to give sorry, to a lot of, a little bit to a lot of places.
Let me say it again. It's better to give a lot to a few places than a little to a lot of places. You can't really tie your heart to many, many different things. So be faithful to yourself and to God and follow your heart and give there. So this is what connects your heart to your giving. Of course, if you're not a follower of Jesus, you don't feel a need to honor God with your money.
This is simply good advice. Still follow your heart. You don't have to be a Christian to follow this advice. But if you are a follower of Jesus, then you really have no option but to put others first and to see what he wants to do. Think about it this way. Where did your stuff come from? You may work hard, and I acknowledge that, and applaud that.
But honestly, tomorrow you could lose that job. Where does your real money, your stuff, come from? Who is it that deserves your consideration for what is given you? Saving prepares you to say yes to you. Living generous prepares you to say yes to what's given you. important to you. If you do this, you'll make more thoughtful, intentional, strategic, and less emotional giving decisions.
You'll feel better about saying no to every other ask when you've said yes to the things that you've determined before God touch you and help you. And you'll be glad you did. We're going to say this, generous people don't feel guilty saying no because they've already said yes. It's called priority.
Prior commitment. Priority. That means that even in the areas of morals, you know, if you're getting tempted to do something you shouldn't, if you've already made a prior commitment in that area, it's so much easier and stronger for you to stand in that place and choose God's answer. Amen. So this is why I say the simplest way to organize your finances is this way.
First give, second save, and third live. If you do things this way, it'll be more in your life. It means if you give, you'll have more joy. If you save, you'll have more peace. If you live with what you have left, you'll have more freedom to live out your life. It's a pretty good formula to live by. Imagine if you had been doing this all along.
Imagine how much money you would have given away responsibly to things you believe in or were passionate about. Do you know what happened to all the money that you didn't have? Didn't give away? No, you don't, because it's gone. You can't really remember. All the things you wasted away, you can't remember what happened to it.
It's not important to you, really. So how we manage our money is a key ingredient to how well we are following Jesus. Please learn this wisdom and begin to live generous. For it wasn't, it's what it means in some respects to be a follower of Jesus. If Jesus was able to say, for God so loved the world, He gave.
We follow in that example. We follow him in everything. And I'm challenging you to begin living generous. Imagine if you had that savings account we dreamed about at the beginning, full of all the money that you hadn't wasted away, that you hadn't given away without consideration, that you hadn't put into unwise choices.
We can all imagine that and God is saying, let's start today to reverse that, to flip it to a better way. Even Jesus said it this way, you're going to be happier. He said, you're going to be happier. He used the word blessed. Okay. And Acts says, it's more happy. It's more blessed to give than to receive.
We've all heard that, but we want to live it out as well. He's not kidding. You will be happier. It's a fact, and you can't consume your way to happiness. We've all tried that, haven't we? It just doesn't work. It's impossible. If you want to be happy, flip the script on how you manage your money. You'll give more, you'll save more, you'll consume less, and you'll be happier.
This isn't about giving to get, either. Don't confuse that. If you're living in Australia right now, you've won the lottery in that area. Right? You're living in the lucky country. You're already, already blessed beyond so many of your fellow earthlings. So don't ever come that way of saying, I just need more God.
Come by the way of saying God you've given me so much, you know, this is genuine You've given me so much, you know I was a pastor for over 30 years and while I was pastoring I often had to go and do the Tax work and other things to make ends meet But I was always We as a family, always so blessed to be provided for by God.
To know that there was never laying awake at night thinking, Oh, where is it going to come from? You know, my help comes from the Lord and that's the way we can live generous because we know where our stuff comes from. Last thing I want to show too is an image of the first temple in Jerusalem. Here's King David and he's been fighting a long time and he's amassed a great wealth and he's ready to give that money towards the building of a temple by his son Solomon.
And look what he says. You can look it up in Chronicles. 1 Chronicles 29 verse 14. He says, But who am I, Lord, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we've given you only what comes from your own hand. And by all means, that temple is reportedly to have been one of the most spectacular buildings that were ever built to honor God.
1 Chronicles 29 verse 14. He says, But who am I, Lord, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? That's the power of a plan and a percentage. This is what it means to follow Jesus with our finances. And I don't want you to get another 10 years down the track and think, Gee, I should have listened to Pastor Len.
Should have listened to the wisdom of the scriptures. Do it now. So in 10 years time you can look back and say, you know what? God has control of me and my finance life is designed. Listen, life is designed to be a party and we've all been invited. It's true. You know, the thief comes to steal and destroy, but Jesus said, I've come that you have ma may have life and live it to the full over abundance.
And I'm not again preaching about believing God so you'll have more. I'm saying recognize that God has already blessed you so much, you already have more, rejoice, join the party. So, don't be tempted to live as though there is no party, and you weren't invited. Don't be a miserable Christian. So that's the enemy's plan for you.
When we believe there is enough and that you are enough with God, we see opportunities for generosity, Live generous. I'm going to invite the worship team to come now as we finish up. Make a plan and pick a percentage to give. Then watch and see what happens in your heart and in your finances. Test God out.
This is the only area where I think he would say, Test me. See if I don't give you a blessing. And he will. Press down, flowing over. It's a keystone habit that has the potential to change your life. So give generously. More importantly, live generous. You'll be glad you did. We're going to pick up this theme one more time next week in Timeless Advice for Troubled Times.
I think it was Keith up the back that said that looks very much like a good label for a drink, doesn't it? You'll be glad you're doing that. Ginger beer, ginger beer, okay. Let's pray together. Lord, your generosity is extravagant. Help each of us to have a generosity plan. If not, Lord, teach us to ask ourselves, why not?
Lord, help us to clearly see what's holding us back from pre deciding to give away a percentage of our income. Lord, help us to give to what we are grateful for and what breaks our hearts. God, help your generosity reflect our answers to those two questions. Amen.