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September 24, 2020 6:00 am
Current research tells us that generous people are happier have a stronger immune system and have more positive life giving relationships so it begs the question, how can we become more general. That's today stay with thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram Bible Teacher of a Saturday Field Discipleship Program Chips in a Series Called Living Generously. This Program Is Going to Get Super Practical Some Specific Action Steps.
If You're Considering This Challenge to Live More Generous Simple Very Dual and Then Become More Generous in Every after the Teaching Trip Will Be with Us to Share Even More about How This Works for to Stay with Us for That.
Now Here's Chip with Part Two of His Message. Understanding the Jury How Do You Become More Generous. Here's Our First Steps toward Living a Generous Life Number One Recognize It's a Journey You Know If You Want to Be a Classical Guitar Player, a Great Athlete, No One Went from Putting on the Skates to Doing One of Those Dances. No One Just Put on Some Skis and Then You Know What You like 7 Million Miles up in the Air and Landed You Know It's It's a Journey. So I Want You to Really Think about Is What Would It Look like for You Personally to Say Wherever You're at on a Scale of 1 to 10 or One 200 If I'm Here. What Would It Look like to Move toward Becoming More Generous and You Might Even at This Moment, Whisper, I'd like to Be More Generous.
Would You Help Me Be More Generous.
Second, Reevaluate Your View of God.
This Is Where It All Really Begins in Exodus 32. After All God's Grace, Deliverance, Moses Goes up to Get the 10 Commandments and They Get Aaron to Build a Golden Calf and Their Worshiping a Golden Calf.
Moses Comes down Takes Care Of the Situation and Then in Chapter 33. He Has His Personal Talk with God and Says You Know If Working to Keep Going You Get to Go with Me If You Not to Go with Me. I Don't Want to Go and He Stands in the Gap for the Israelites and Their Forgiven and Then He Seen God's Power.
He Seen the Red Sea. He Seemed the Fire at Night in the Cloud by Day He Seen Manna Come out on Me Seen All These Miracles, but His Big Prayer Is Show Me Your Glory. I Want to Know You As You Really Are in Chapter 33 God Says No Man Can See My Face and Live. But Here's What I'm Going to Do All Passed by a Let You Get a Glimpse a Let All My Goodness Pass before You.
It's a Very Interesting Hebrew Word, and That JI Packer Has a Great Observation. He Says within the Cluster of God's Moral Perfections. There Is One in Particular to Which the Term Goodness Points the Quality Which God Especially Singled out from the Hole When Proclaiming All His Goodness to Moses. He Spoke of Himself As Abundant in Goodness and Truth.
This Is the Quality of a Ready Generosity. Packer Says That Generosity Expresses the Simple Wish That Others Would Have What They Need to Make Them Happy.
Could You Even for a Moment Fathom What Would Happen If When You Thought about God You Thought. He's Generous and He Would like You to Have What Would Make You Happy That He's for You, He's Not down on You He Loves You and Then He Introduces Himself.
It's Really Interesting. He Introduces Himself to Moses, Says the Lord, the Lord, Compassionate and Gracious, Slow to Anger and Abounding in Love and Faithfulness. So What's God Really like the Lord, the Lord, He's Compassionate That It It's It's a Word of He Feels What You Feel and He Wants to Bond with You. He's Gracious, It Means He Just Wants to Give, Not Because You've Done Anything but Just Because There's Something in Him He Wants. He's Compassionate and Gracious.
Contrary to Popular Belief, He's Not Angry He's Slow to Anger the Word Literally Means It Takes Something for a Long Long Time to Heat up. He's so Patient with You, He's Kind He's Generous, He's Faithful If You and I Would Begin to See and Understand Who God Is. We Would Just Be Humbled by His Generosity toward You. In Abraham's Life in Genesis 12 Verses One through Three. He Calls This Man out to Leave and and It Says He Obeyed Him and He Followed and He Doesn't Know Where He Was Going and Then This Is God's Promise. The Lord Said Abraham Leave Your Country, Your People and Your Father's House and Go to the Land That I Will Show You by the Way, Generosity Sometimes Means Leaving Your Country or People in Your Family Is Positioning Yourself in Obedience. I Will Make You into a Great Nation, and I Will Bless You and I Will Make Your Name Great and You Will Be a Blessing and I Will Bless Those Who Bless You, and Whoever Curses You I Will Curse. And All the Peoples of the Earth Will Be Blessed through You. There's Only Three Verses and the Word Blessed or Blessed Comes Five Times.
Who Is Abraham. He's the Father of the Faith. God Wants Us to Trust Him. Are You Ready for This.
As You Trust Him with Your Time. Trust Him with Your Future Trust Him with Your Relationships, Trust, and That Work Trust in with Your Money.
Here's the God That You Serve. He Wants to Bless You. He Wants to Do Good You Know Some of You Are Parents Right Don't You Kind of Feel Happy inside with Your Kids Are Doing Well Don't You Go to at Times Wish You Had a Little Bit More Energy or Time or Money or You Know There's Something on Their Heart That You Would Want to Give Them Where You Think You Get That That's How God Feels about You. He Longs to Bless You. God Is a Bless Her and He's Eager to Bless Your Life Write That down What You He's a Bless Her.
He Wants to Bless Your Life. You Know What He Knows about You.
Everything and You Know What Someone Who Knows Everything. He Knows What Will Bring the Greatest Deepest Joy for the Longest Possible Time and If It Were a Thing You Probably Give You a Thing. But If Things Filled You up in the Richest People in the World Would Be the Happiest.
Unfortunately They're Not Summary. We Do Not Own or Deserve.
Write the Word Anything the Beginning Step of Really Becoming Generous Is Sort of a Coin with Two Sides. One Side of the Coin Is God Wants to Bless Me.
The Other Side of the Coin Is He Owns Everything. So What He's Asking Us to Be Generous with Time Who Gave You the Time When He's Asking Us to Be Generous with Our Money. Guess What Get the Word Hour Out Of It. It's Not Yours. It's His. So All This Stuff about Percentages. If You Give 20% 30% 40%. Guess What God Owns It All and He Holds Us Responsible for All of What He Wants You Knows It's an Amazing Thing That Switches When You so You Know What I Don't Own Anything. Are You Ready for This Anti-Entitlement. You Deserve Anything I Need to Do. I See We Act like I Deserve This Use I Were Cargill, Who Gave You the Job. Why You Know I Thought This There Will Give You the Brain. I'm in Unit We Can Go There.
I Got to Write. I Got You That the Apostle Paul Says What Do You Have That You Haven't Received. I'm Not Telling You That You Have Worked Hard. I'm Not Telling You Haven't Applied Yourself. But I'm Telling You There's a Sovereign, All-Knowing, All-Powerful God, Who Is Created Every Blessing Every Good and Perfect Gift.
James Would Say Don't Be Deceived Every Good and Perfect Gift Comes from above.
That's Where It Comes from from the Father of Lights with Whom There Is No Variation or Shifting Shadow Numbers. He Doesn't Change in the Old Testament, He Says, at the Same Way the Lord God.
Psalm 8411 Lord God Is a Son and a Shield Unlimited Provider and Protector.
The Lord Gives Grace and Glory. In Other Words, What We Don't Deserve. And He Wants to Lift Us up in Verse That Last Part No Good Thing Will He Withhold from Those Who Walk up Rightly the Challenges Walking up Rightly the Challenges Aligning Our Lives in Such a Way Most Christians Lives. Unfortunately, You're Not Possible You Not Bless of All You Got All These, You Imagine, Member When Her Kids We Did Hope Fights and Some Will Get a Squirt Gun out and Someone Will Get the Hose and What Was the Only Way to Stop the Person with the Hose Right You Got down and You Pick up the Hose and You Crank Right so Many Christians Your Your Hose. God Wants to Pour Blessing into Your Life and Your Hose It's Cranked in His with Selfishness or with an Addiction or with an Unforgiving Attitude, or Your Finances Are Just, You Know, and in Moments of Weakness and Sometimes It Was Just Ignorance. We Got All This Debt, This Is Just All Kind of Things That Happen and and Your Heavenly Father, I Would Want to Bless You Something to Go on a Journey to Position Yourself so You Can Receive What God Wants to Give You, and When He Gives It to You He Want You to Recognize All by the Way, This Really Is Yours and Can Keep Passing It on.
What Keeps Us from Living Generously. I've Alluded to a Couple but First and Foremost Human Nature Right. We've All Sinned and Fall Short of the Glory of God in II Have a Number of Small Little Grandchildren. No One Had to Teach Them. That's Mine Right and We Get Sophisticated, but That Same That's Mine Is in Your Heart and Mine. And so It's Hard to Be Generous. The Second Reason Is I Just Called Delusional Thinking and We Just Because We Sorta We Always Compare like This Works. Compare like What This This Person Is Sort of an Ax Murderer to Have a Kill Anyone. I Must Be Pretty Nice Person You Know or You Know I'm I'm a I Give a Dollar. I Helped a Homeless Person Once or Ice. I Smile Instead of What We Way to Second. Are You Given the First and the Best of Your Time to the Lord, Are You Is Your Antenna up and You Find Yourself Giving Kind Words Kind Thoughts You Find Yourself Secretly Providing for People and Whether It's Food or Whether It's Money I Use to Say This, and There Was Always a Little Edge in a Pastor's Are Our People to Succeed, We Do Stuff Is Not That Great and I Had a Message That I Used To Speak a Number of Years Ago on Giving and When I Really Wanted to Bring It Home and I Really Wanted to Come and Sing It to You Because It Frustrates Me Because I Know What You're Missing Him, and Part of It.
It Just Frustrates Me and so I Would Say Something like This You Ready Ready for the Singer and I'll Tell You the Switch of Motives. I Would Say the Average Christian Is Far More Committed to Making Sure They Live 10 or 15 or 20% at a Table to a Waiter or Waitress Than They Are to the God That Died and Rose from the Dead for Them. How Many Times Have You Gone out to Dinner at a Decent Place and Just Stiffed the Waiter or Waitress and Give You Anything. None Right That There's Not a Hand Will Go up in the Night and so That Night Really Made a Point That While That'll Help and That It Never Has. But I Why You Know Why Because You Get to No One Is There Serving You and Your Thinking Partly What Would They Think.
By the Way, Christian by Large Know Some Waiters and Waitresses Sunday Afternoons. It's Terrible. Yeah They Come in the Bow. There Had Been Praying That the Worst Timbers. It's Not a Good Testimony. But What I Realizes When You Get to Know That Person What You Realize That Is Going to an Actual Person. They Have Case They Have Hair, You Might Find out You Know She Has a Little Girl. You Might Find out That He's in School and and See What I Think Is Happen with Giving a Church.
Somehow You Think It's like Some Law That God Brought down When You Give You Give to a Person to Give to Jesus Giving Is a Love Action and I Think the Reason We Don't Stiffed Waitresses and Waiters Is Because It's a Real Person and Somehow We Think God's.
The Force He's a Real Person with Feelings and He Wants Us to Give for Our Benefit and so That We Can Help Others. I Think the Biggest One, However, Is I Just Called Irrational Fear Means Just Irrational and It Goes like This. If I Give in and Let's Get to the Heart. Some of You Feel Better about Time Which Is Really Harder to Give Than Money, but You Know If You Not Doing Well with Money Times in Harder so Here.
Think of the Logic God. I Know That You Can Provide My Salvation When I Die, I Believe with All My Heart. You Provided a Way That You Paid for My Sin, You Prepared a Way for Me and I Know for Sure I'm Going to Heaven. I Just Don't Think I Could Live on 90 or 80 or Whatever Percent That You Lead Me I Just I Just Don't Think You Could Help Me Pay My Bills. Now It Really Got You Can Deliver Me from Death. God, I've Seen You Intervene and Heal Cancer I've Seen You Pull Mary Back Together. I've Seen You Take One of My Kids and Turn Them around. I Seen You Do Things at Work.
I Never Dream but I Really Don't Think You Could Give Me Enough Money to Pay for Groceries. It's Just Irrational and the Enemy Plays on It.
And Finally, This Is You Know We Ugly Stuff Out Of the Way. We Are People and Sometimes It's Just Greed and Pride, Just Greed and Pride.
No One Is Immune but Notice Living Generously Requires Wisdom, Honesty, Practice Faith and Humility. And I Didn't Just Pick Those Words out You Need Wisdom to Understand Its Human Nature. You Need Honesty to Overcome Your Delusional Thinking You Need Practice Because Some People You Just Don't Know the Bible Do Not Is Not a Bad Person. I Didn't Know the Bible Taught This and Then You Need Faith to Overcome Your Irrational Fears and Then Humility at the Heart of Giving.
It's Just Always Starts with Humility You've Given This to Me and I'm Going to Trust and I Want to Share This Time.
This Word This Thought This Influence with Someone Else. Let Me Give You Some Action Steps.
How Do You Become More Generous One. Take Daily Baby Steps with Words, Thought, Time, Stuff, Money and Concrete Record Them. I Don't Care If You've Never Done a Journal.
Just Get a Little Spiral Notebook, At Least for 30 Days Just I Mean You Have To Write but Three or Four Lines but Take a Baby Step I'm in a Say Positive Words to the People at Work.
I'm Going to You. I'm Going to Look for One Person to Help You Take an Extra Five Dollars.
I Don't Care What You Do Do Something and Then Write down Second Celebrate Daily. God's Blessings and Record Them to. I Think I Think All Kind of Things and We Don't Just Don't Recognize It. I Need to Set up in Bed, Turn on That Little Light and You Only Have To Write Two or Three Lines but Just What Where Did God Blessed Me Today and Just Admit If You Don't Want to Write up Bullet Point Bullet Point Bullet Point. Just Do It for 30 Days. I'm Telling You Your Awareness of God Will Skyrocket, and Then Finally Give Your First in Your Best Portion Back to God. Each Payday Just a Mean Just to Say Wow by Faith and and and Biblically and Were Not Going to Get into Tithing and Gross and Net and All That but Biblically Just 10% before the Wall during the Law. Jesus Said Something Is Probably Good Place to Start but but Here's for Some of You That Might Be like You Know Mount Everest.
So You Might Want to Go for a Base Camp. Here's Here's Would Be for Everyone. Give a Percentage Make the Percentage in This Is between You and Got Lord I'm Going to Start Giving 2.5% on That Give 6%.
I'm Gonna Get Simpson but Do Something Where You Begin to Build a Track Record Where Your Acting on the Truth. At Whatever Level You Think You Have and Just See What Got Us to See What He Does the Right Application, but If You're Just Joining Us, You're Listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and Ships Talk Today Understanding the Jury Is from His Series, Living Generously, Living Generously Gives Us a Practical Guide to Becoming the Winsome Generous Spirit. We so Admire When We See It Another's Chip Uses Biblical Examples and Jesus Teaching to Illustrate the Rhythm and Harmony of the Law of the Harvest and How That Applies to Living a More Generous Life Yourself If You like to Dig in and Learn More. You'll Find the Discounted Living Generously Resources on Our Website LivingontheEdge.org for More Information Just Give Us a Call at 888-333-6003 Will Check before You Get Your Application You Want to Talk for a Minute about a Little Book He Wrote Called the Genius of Generosity. So Many People Are Having a Tough Time. It Might Seem Odd to Be Talking about Generosity Right Now.
What Is It about This Little Book That Gets You so Pumped All Day but I Gotta Tell You, There's Multiple Truths in Scripture That Change Your Life. But I Think One of the Things That's so Misunderstood and Often Just Produces Guilt among Christians like You Know How Much You Getting and What You Percentage and Why Did You Give Moran What's Wrong with You and It's Been so Framed around Specific Projects and Things That This Idea of Generosity Isn't about Ott's or Should. It's about Jewellike It's about Love. It's about Experiencing God the Most Generous Being in the Universe Is God and He's Deposited His Spirit in Us and There's Lots of Reasons That It's Hard to Be Generous, but I Mean the Research, Not Just Biblically but Scientifically Emotionally about Our Happiness or Joy, Our Relationships, Even Our Immune System. It's Amazing That When You Grasp What Generosity Is All about Is Not so Much about Your Better Than Other People Is Not Even so Much about How Holy You Are. It's Not Being Smart and This Little Book, Opens That up and It Is Such a Joy When I See People I Mean You Can Read It in a Little over an Hour and I Do See People Light up and It Changes Their Life. So That's Why I'm so Excited about It.
Thanks. Chip Well for Limited Time or Discounting Chips Amazing Little Book, the Genius of Generosity Is Only about 100 Pages Was Quick Read Will Profoundly Change the Way You View Everything God's Given You Including Your Life. Once You Learn the Genius of Generosity to Look at Your Circumstances and People in a Whole New Way to Order a Copy for Yourself or to Order More to Give As Gifts. Just Give Us a Call a Triple Late. 333-6003 Special Offers on the App or Go Online to LivingontheEdge.org. The Genius of Generosity. Check It out Today As We Close Today's Program You Note, Let Me Ask You Question What Keeps You from Being More Generous Right I Mean the Logic of It. What I Shared What I Taught I Know You Know Being Generous Is Wise, Smart, Biblical Great and I Covered about Four Different Reasons Why We Struggle with This and Let Me Just Review Them and Want to Ask You Which One of These Do You Feel like Who That's the One I Should Address Number One Human Nature Right. We All Want. This Is Mine. The Second One Was Delusional Thinking Some out Thinking That You Own It. Instead of You Know This Is a Stewardship from God, and Third Was Irrational Fear Unit.
This Idea That You Know If I If I Give My Time Aware My Money Away. There Won't Be Enough for Me and Then Finally Just That Big Greed and Pride That Gets You and Me Thinking That You Know Bigger, Better, More and What I Want You to Know Is That You Have To Be Intentional to Intervene to Become More Generous in Other Words, You Not Going to Slide into Becoming More Generous. You Have To Build New Habits and New Ways of Thinking. So Let Me Give You a Meet for Today. It Just This Week. Here's What I Want You to Do to Baby Steps. I Talked about Baby Step Baby Step Number One Get a Little Spiral Notebook or Take the Notes Section on Your Phone and and Literally I Mean One or Two Minutes before You Go to Bed.
I Want You to Just Jot down Two or Three Things.
Were You Experienced Generosity from God.
This Is How God Was Good to Me. I Just Want You to Begin to Think and Remember That He's Been Generous to You Because That Will Change Your Mindset. The Second Thing Is I Would like You Depending on Your Financial Status.
It Can Be a Dollar. It Can Be by the Compete and It Could Be 20 and I Want You to Fort Literally, Five, Six, Seven Days in a Row.
Whatever You Choose. I Want You to Take. You Know, Maybe It's 51 Dollar Bills or 55 Dollar Bills or Five $10 Bills or Whatever Number You Want and Every Day. I Want You to Look for Someone to Give That to.
It Could Be a Tip with the Word It Could Be a Homeless Person in $10 Meal but I Want You to Be Looking for. How Do I Give Away Just This Small Amount of Money and Here's What's Can Happen Having That in Your Pocket and Looking for Someone, It Changes Your Mindset to Get You Thinking about Others You're Going to Find an Attitudinal Change, and This Might Become a Lifelong Habit Go for Just before We Close. I Want You to Know That As a Staff We Ask the Lord to Help You Take Whatever Your Next Faith Step Is. We'd Love to Hear How It's Going to Be Tells How It Went with Whatever You Put in Your Pocket to Give Away Would You Take a Minute to Send Us a Note or Give Us a Call Either One Is Easy. Just Send a Quick Note to Chip and LivingontheEdge.org or Give Us a Call at Triple Late. 333-6003 Will for All of Us Here, This Is Dave Drewry Saying Thanks for Listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge