Getting To The Heart Of Giving By Tim Badal

Jesus Christ, God himself, when he saw our need, that God loved us so much that he gave. He gave. He saw us in our sin, and he gave. He didn't give a portion. He didn't give part. He gave his one and only son. If we're gonna be followers of Jesus Christ, we gotta stop drinking contaminated water, and we've gotta get rid of that handle because that kind of thinking is killing us. [00:38:02] (30 seconds)  #GiveItAll

What is the amount? All of it. Aren't you glad listen to me, church. Aren't you glad that Jesus didn't give part of himself, a fraction of himself, a portion of himself that he, as we're gonna sing in a couple moments, paid it all? And then we have the audacity to say, well, what little can I give? If Jesus is the standard, we are accepting a gift, and then as the book of Malachi says, we're robbing God because he gave and we say, hey, thanks. [00:30:22] (33 seconds)  #PaidItAll

If you don't give yourself over to the Lord, meaning your heart and your life, you will never be generous. Because your generosity will be out of compulsion. It will be out of guilt. It'll be out of all manner of things. It will not be out of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So what we need to do, maybe the first handle that needs to be taken off the well this morning in your heart, in your life, is the handle that I'm not my own. [00:22:24] (27 seconds)  #NotMyOwn

When we talk about giving, you have a responsibility. You need to be ready to give. And if you're not ready to give, then what handle is contaminating that ability to do so? That's between you and the Lord. And my prayer is that you would stop drinking the dirty water of this world and would start drinking the clean water of the generosity that God gives and now calls us to give. It will change your life [00:43:04] (29 seconds)  #ChooseGenerosity

So God commands us, like the church at Corinth, we who are rich that we are to give. There's this opportunity to give. Are we gonna do it? Are we gonna see it as my opportunity? God, could it be that you gave me this promotion, not for myself, but so that I could serve someone else in their need? Could it be, God, that you gave me this inheritance, not for me to buy a new car, not for me to fix up my house, not for me to buy a whole set of new clothes, but could it be that the gospel could be advanced in places like Uganda and Alaska and the uttermost parts of the world? [00:37:01] (40 seconds)  #BlessingsAreForServing

Christians, we've got a problem. Christians, we have a problem with giving. Did you know every study will tell us that the difference between our level of generosity between people who say they have been saved by the amazing grace of God, and those who have not experienced the salvation of Jesus Christ is a change of about one to one and a half percent of generosity. That's it. [00:14:46] (28 seconds)  #GenerosityGap

I want us to know that our problem with generosity isn't our bills, it isn't the amount of pay that we have, it isn't our social economic status. Our problem with generosity is greed. It's greed at the source. We want to keep as much of our money as we can, and so we are very, very tight when it comes to sharing our money, whether it's sharing our money with our spouses, sharing our money with our families, sharing our money with our friends, sharing our money with with people in need, sharing our money with the church. [00:10:18] (36 seconds)  #GreedIsTheIssue

The reason for our generosity is because we live a life of gratitude for the grace that God has done. We, as I said earlier, have adopted this theology that says, God, you've given me everything. We just sang it. Your faithfulness, it's new every morning. This faithfulness, all that I've needed, your hand half provided. So we are adopting this idea. God, you've given me everything. [00:20:50] (31 seconds)  #GratitudeGenerosity