Living Generously: Embracing Faith Through Intentional Giving

1. "But even in this modern age, in-person gatherings matter. If you're not gathering with other believers, you should. That's not just my opinion. The writer of Hebrews instructs us to think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And, he or she says, let us not neglect the meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. If you're anywhere near St. John's, Florida, we'd love to have you each Sunday. at Liberty Pines Academy. If you're far away from us, find a local gathering with which you can engage. Gather together, pray, learn from the wisdom of God and his people, and sing." [08:27] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "And it's a series called You'll Be Glad. And it's all about wisdom principles from the Bible, not the rules, but the wisdom principles that if we live by these principles, our lives will be better and we will be glad that we did. So that's where we're going today. But before I come out and speak, we are going to sing a little bit together and we choose these songs. Specifically because of what they say about our God and our relationship with him, that the God of the universe is not frustrated with you. He is not angry with you. He is not upset with you. The God of the universe loves you and he is for you and we are for you as well. And so we want to sing some songs that celebrate that, that talk about that, that frankly remind us of these truths because we need to be reminded." [09:16] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "The Bible talks a lot about pursuing wisdom, about going after wisdom. If you've spent any time reading in the book of Proverbs, if you're not sure where to start reading your Bible, one simple adage that's been around for a long time is just start today, and whatever day it is on the calendar, today's the 29th. Am I right? 29th? Today's the 29th, so you start with Proverbs 29. There's 31 Proverbs, and you can easily read one proverb in like three or four minutes. And that proverb will help you in your life. And the Proverbs are really a series of wisdom principles. It's just a series of wisdom principles. You will find things in there that are worth underlining. You will find things in there that are worth highlighting because when we're talking about wisdom principles, we're talking about insights that are informed by the knowledge that life is connected, that life's connected, that today's connected to the decisions I made yesterday, and the decisions that I'm making today are going to affect my life tomorrow." [41:17] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "And more than that, not just connected across time, but relationally, our lives are connected. And the decisions that I make are going to have an impact on the people that are closest to me. And I know this is true because you've had people in your life who've not understood this principle, and the decisions that they have made poorly have impacted you. And so you feel like, man, I wish that they would understand that when they make a bad decision, it doesn't just affect them, it affects me as well. Well, guess what? There may be people in your life today or at some point in the future who will be so glad that you made principled, wise decisions. And that those principled, wise decisions not only benefit you, but they affect your kids, your spouse, anybody who is close to you or cares about you. This is the point of wisdom." [42:14] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Live generous. Now, I know there's supposed to be an L-Y on there. Apple broke the rules so we can break the rules too. But I want to contrast this with the idea of be generous. And so that's why I left the L-Y off. Be generous is like a moment in time, right? And we all have moments in time where we are generous. Even the most selfish, greedy person that you know has had moments in their life when they are generous. And so if you show up and you just say, hey. You know what? Be generous. They can do the same thing that you do when your spouse says, well, you never do this or, you know, you can never win the argument at home because when you say, hey, you never help around the house and then your spouse is like, yes, I do. Like two weeks ago, I helped load the dishwasher, you know. And so there's always an example for when we've done the right thing. And that's a moment in time. But there is another idea, which is that we live out a lifestyle. That it is a defined or a defining characteristic of who we are." [44:10] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "And the thing about generosity is it's something we have to work at. It's something we have to come back to again and again and again. It's not a set it and forget it mode. We have to come back to it on a regular basis. Because here's the really challenging thing. One of the things that it is absolutely impossible to see in the mirror is greed. It's impossible to see greed in the mirror. And so we need a regular reminder. We need a regular check-in. We need a regular conversation. If you're single, you need a trusted friend that you can talk to about this. If you're married, you need to be talking about this on a regular basis with your spouse." [46:05] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And the impact that I want to make, here I am, here I stand. The impact I want to make is to help people understand God's great, great love for them and His desire to reconnect in a relationship with them. And so if I say that that's what my life is all about, if I act as if that's what my life is all about, you should be able to open up my budget and you should say, yep, there it is. There's the evidence thereof. And I'm a little bit of a budget nerd. So if you want to see my budget, I'd love to show it to you. I'd actually have a conversation with you about your budget. I think budgeting is like one of the most fun things you can do in life. It's weird, isn't it? I know. But if you're with me, anybody with me, give me a good amen. There's a few of us out there. We just love ourselves a good spreadsheet." [47:46] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "But if you live generous, if you live generous, here's the thing. You will not only avoid greed, which none of us wants to be thought of as selfish or greedy, but you'll be less consumed. And what I mean by that is we live in a culture of consumerism. We live in a culture which is, I mean, I fall for it. You fall for it. I have in my pocket. An iPhone 16. Do you know how badly I needed this? Not at all. But if I didn't trade my old phone in now, then if I kept it any longer, I wouldn't get any value for it. So you find yourself thinking, okay, now I've got to be strategic and I've got to trade my phone in now before it's too old to trade in. And then I've got to get this new phone, which does, by the way, I don't know if you know this, exactly the same things. That my old phone did. Right? Like I was so excited and I got this out of the box and I got the software. And then you're like, feels a lot like my old phone. You know, it actually acts a lot like my old phone." [48:23] (66 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "And if you're just an average individual, maybe that's not a big deal to you. But if you're a follower of Jesus, then this really matters. Because Jesus lived his life. Generous. He lived his life, not for his benefit, but for your benefit and for mine. And so it's really important that we keep an eye on this and we check ourselves in the mirror. Now, one of the things that will confuse us. And one of the reasons that we can't see greed in the mirror is because we confuse generosity so often with what I call random acts of giving. Random acts of giving. And random acts of giving are just that. They are random acts of giving. And sometimes we look back on that and we're like, well, that makes me generous. No, I'm not talking about be generous in the moment. We are talking about live generous. Like that this is who you are. Not that, you know, you were at the checkout and somebody said you want to give $2 to the children's hospital. And you were like, oh, you know, they're going to think badly of me if I hit the red button. So I hit the green button and, you know, gave my $2 to the children's hospital. We're not talking about random acts of giving. We're talking about strategic, intentional, on purpose living where you say I'm going to orient my life in such a way that when people see the steps I'm taking in life, they would say that looks like someone who's following Jesus. That my steps are in line with the steps of Jesus." [49:16] (92 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "So first I want to demolish a few myths about generosity. And then we're going to look at what Jesus had to say about generosity. And then your lives are going to be changed. All right, here we go. Generosity myth number one. Generosity myth number one. Generous is spontaneous. Generous is not spontaneous. Spontaneous is spontaneous. That's all it is. Generous is not a feeling. And it's not the result of feeling. People who are truly generous are generous on purpose. It is something that they do with intentionality. Another myth is that generosity is regulated by cash flow. You've probably found yourself at some point saying. Oh, I wish I could help right now. I just can't. I just can't, right? I wish I could help right now, but I just can't. Because when someone asks for money, we immediately think to cash flow. We think to what we have available. What's liquid. What's on hand right now that we could possibly give. Instead of thinking about this as a lifestyle, as a pattern that goes on for our lives. The third myth is that it's the amount that counts." [52:43] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)