Generosity: The Path to Freedom and Abundance

1. "We've defined generosity in the term of generosity is something that God wants for us. It's not something that God wants from us. And we can easily get that confused, right? We can think that, well, God's just trying to, you know, suck what I have out of me. He's trying to suck life out of me. Right. Or we can kind of be begrudging about, well, I just I've worked hard. I've got all this stuff. I've accumulated this stuff. And I I kind of want to feel a little bit entitled to it." ([00:33:29] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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2. "Generosity is a path towards freedom because we view the things that God has given us not as owners. Right. OK, God, you've given me this stuff. Now I now I get to just own all this stuff and I get to do what I want to with it. But whatever God gives us, we view it open handed as being a steward. I'm a steward of these things that God has given us. And we get to be an opportunity of positioning our lives to be a conduit of God's blessing in the world." ([00:37:45] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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3. "And again, our finances just have a way if we're not being intentional about it, they can actually choke out. Our faith. And we end up closing off that conduit right of God wanting to to use us to make an impact in the world around us. Well, let's look at a parable that Jesus is going to say today that really speaks to this heartstring of greed. And we're going to find it in Luke chapter 12." ([00:38:32] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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4. "He always found himself surrounded by these crowds and they wanted to know the wisdom of the Lord. And here's a situation where this where this is going to happen today. And we see it in Luke 12, beginning in verse 13. It says this. Someone from the crowd said to him. Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. Interesting. Now, the." ([00:40:05] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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5. "Watch out and be on guard against all greed because one's life is not in the abundance of his possessions Luke 12 14 through 15 man I love how Jesus responds to it right the kids and I they teach me all these fun fun words and so I like to embarrass them but Jesus is cooking in this response okay he's just straight cooking he fried this guy you know if you're if you're if you're 40 like I am and over don't worry about it just let it let it go but this this younger brother is wanting Jesus to to be the arbitrator over this situation right he's wanting Jesus to deal in the realm of the symptom of what is occurring in this particular situation and the symptom of the situation is that this brother feels like he's been jaded or left out in some capacity he either doesn't trust the brother or he wants what is his and he is asking Jesus to make things right and here's what I love about Jesus Jesus doesn't play that game he never plays that game he doesn't address the symptom he goes straight to the disease here's what I would challenge us with as a people right we take greed off the table for just a second we love getting in arguments with people and we love dealing in the realm of symptoms and Jesus gives us an example time and time again he looks at a person's heart and he refuses to get in these arguments about all these symptoms that he could be dealing with and he always goes straight to the heart of the issue and deals with the disease and if we could be people like that I think we could save ourselves a whole lot of breath and we could probably a lot be a lot more effective in the ways that we that we talk and the way that Jesus is able to do that is that if you look at the economy of words that he typically uses he's pretty smart he actually sits and he actually listens to the words that are coming out of people's mouths and he just sits back and he listens and he processes and he tries to read between the lines and say oh man you know I think what's going on here this really isn't about a brother who is wanting a fair cut of whatever he thinks in this particular situation I'm looking at a young man who he could be latched on to greed and if that's the case doesn't matter how much money he gets or what the split is or anything like that this guy is heading down a destructive path so let's just take this thing high level and heart level and let's focus on the disease rather than on the symptom and he's going to do that by by sharing a parable and sharing a story and here's what we get in 16 then he told them a parable a rich man's land was very productive cool he thought to himself what should I do since I don't have anywhere to store my crops I will do this he said I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there then I'll say to myself you have many goods stored up for many years take it easy eat drink and enjoy yourself Luke 12 16 through 19 so Jesus doesn't respond directly to the guy's question other than saying, hey, I'm not an arbitrator between you and your brother. You're going to have to figure that thing out. I'm not stepping into that dysfunction." ([00:48:53] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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6. "will catch your attention and maybe it might even get you to think about something in a new and in a and in a fresh way and so jesus shares this parable and it's all going to deal with this heartstring of greed so i was thinking about this isn't this isn't this so interesting all right so this rich guy he's already rich the parable tells us that he's not rich because he has a bountiful harvest he's rich beginning this to begin the the parable and it says a rich man's land was very productive he thought to himself what should i do since i don't have anywhere to store my crops i thought about that i thought about that i thought about that you know greed is a really interesting thing because it gives us a false perspective on all of our reality that surrounds us now this guy was already rich he experiences a windfall he has this amazing harvest that happens so there's nothing in here that we get in this story right he he's not doing anything malicious he's not doing anything that would that we would consider to be a corrupt thing he's not wealthy or at least this windfall of a harvest that he has isn't because he you know he cheated the system or anything like that this is a guy who finds himself in a situation where the lord has just for whatever reason which god can do he opens up the sky and the clouds and he's like boom i am blessing this guy and this guy finds himself swimming in a undeserved or un you know whatever however he got here he is swimming in the blessing of god that's the situation he's in and then i thought to myself man the first thing that this guy thinks of the first thing that comes to this guy's mind is what what he does not have that's the first thing that comes to his mind isn't that interesting" ([00:51:32] (157 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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7. "it's like a dog chasing after its tail when we go down that path in our life when we feel like well if i could just get to this point if i could just have this if i could just if i could just be in this position then life would be then life would be good and we end up going through our whole lives we end up going through seasons of our life right we have a lot of college students here with us right and i i remember back in those days like it could even be a perception of like well when i when i just get to this level of my life then things are going to be good and happy when i just when i can just get here i'm just going to put my nose to the down and just focus on what i have to do and there's a part of life right where we need to be planners i'm just not what i'm advocating for and i'm not going to be a planner i'm going to be a we need to think about the future but we have to hold it in balance because what can happen is we can miss an entire decade of our life and" ([00:53:30] (58 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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8. "totally miss and negate the blessings that God already has put in our possession to be stewarded because we're so focused on those things that we do not have and what Jesus is going to tell this guy in just a second is that life is precious the days of our lives have been numbered numbered think about that thought like the days of our lives every single one of our our days actually counts and we have to guard our ourself about thinking that if we can just get to some level of tangible things in this life if I can just possess enough tangible things in life and money is so serious strong in our mind right because money is symbolic of so many things our identity actually gets swept up in it if we're not careful because our identity right as it pertains to our finances we can start to think well this is the this is the monetary number in my mind of what I this is where I will deem success to me if I could just get to this level then I'll be successful and maybe it's not success right because all of our hearts are are wired a little bit differently maybe maybe the thought of not being in control of something terrifies you maybe it's a lack of control and so we feel like if I could just get to this monetary level if I could just get to this that in our mind equates what security" ([00:56:31] (122 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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9. "well then then life is then life will be good then I'll have what I what I need and Jesus is about to have some some strong strong words and again it's not because he hates this guy it's not because he wants ill of this guy Jesus looks at this brother and he doesn't want him to miss out on his life you can miss out on on life and don't forget the context this younger brother is asking Jesus to split the money from his brother because his dad has died his dad is gone you see how a generation has come and gone and now this brother presumably he's he's going down this same path down this destructive path and here's what Jesus is going to say" ([01:01:58] (66 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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10. "going to operate in the way that I feel is right in this particular situation look we can look at this guy and we can call we can see we can see from the outside this guy is is operating in a very foolish way we can see the train wreck that's happening in this guy's life but sometimes in our own lives we get so close to the situation that we negate the wisdom of God and this is this is why Jesus is sharing with him and it's recorded in scripture for us don't negate the wisdom of God don't negate the wisdom of God because one day all of our lives are going to be called and we're going to stand before the Lord and at that point it doesn't matter how much money we have or how much security we have built up or what what titles we have next to our name when we stand before God and and give an account of our lives we can't hide behind any of that stuff none of that stuff is gonna matter and that's why Jesus is sharing this parable and he's saying man this guy is a fool not only because he's tearing down barns and trying to build bigger barns in the middle of a harvest but he's gonna die chasing a dream that never comes true how sad is that this guy dies chasing after a dream that never comes true and he negates the blessings that God has poured out on him chi of greed it's always this pursuit of more it's just a pursuit of more if I could just have a little bit more and fill in the blank I can't do that I can't do that for you you have to do that but just a little bit more and this guy's life life blind ca na area. is called and he stands before the lord and in the example jesus is saying all these things that you have prepared all this stuff who's it gonna be and don't forget the context of the parable there's a group of people standing around one of which is a younger brother who's not happy with the financial arrangement with the older brother and he's wanting some some additional cut and jesus doesn't answer that question but he looks out i hope the younger brother is paying attention to it and says you know you work hard you acquire all this stuff and again we probably don't have time to talk about it but we probably don't have time to talk about it for our families we want to we want to be able to to plan and bless our families i'm not saying all of that but it does get to a pretty ridiculous point at some point where you see you come to the end of of a life and now all these financial resources have been built up and hoarded and what's intended to be a blessing for the next generation and it actually comes off and passes off as a curse and isn't that so sad when you see greed set in and ruin ruin families ruin relationships because we think if we could just get a little bit a little bit more if i could just get to this next level then i would have it have it all and this guy's life is called" ([01:09:21] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


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