Living the Good Life Through Generosity

1. "And while in and of themselves, none of these things are inherently bad or evil, but as we think about them and as we pursue them in and of themselves, none of them will lead to the good life that we are searching for. And over the course of the next four weeks, we're going to be looking at this. What does it mean to live the good life? And what we're going to see ultimately is that it has less to do with what you get and more to do with what you give." [00:01:30] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "It's generosity that ultimately flows from the inside out of us. And as we think about this word and we talk about it over the course of the next several weeks, we're not talking just about financial generosity. Yes, that's a part of it, but it's so much deeper than that. And so here's what we're talking about every time that we say generosity. It's very simple. It's freely giving good things. Freely giving good things. It's this approach to life that is open-hearted, open-handed, that says, I'm going to take all that" [00:02:39] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "It's living generously ultimately means I'm looking for simple ways to bless others daily, and this comes in the form of your time. Maybe it's your time in that instead of rushing off to the next thing, you field the phone call or you have the conversation with the person who clearly needs to have a conversation. Maybe it's sending an encouraging word to someone to remind them that they are valued and loved because, for some reason, God has placed them on your heart. Maybe it's treating someone to a" [00:03:43] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "For me, it was my house while they were gone, but in reality, it was never actually my house. And so, I was not always, I was a good house sitter. I really was. But I kind of made it my own, and I lived in this dream that, hey, this is my house for the next seven to ten days. It was great. But in the same way, this is kind of how we can view things that God has given us. All of creation, all of the things that we have, our paycheck, our cars, our houses, even our relationships and our time, are ultimately God's that he has entrusted to us. To say, I want you to be a steward. I want you to use these things wisely and generously for my purposes." [00:07:41] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "yours to share. And what happens is that when we live in this reality and we recognize that our time, our talents, our resources all belong to God, it is easier and it changes the way we think about life. No longer do I feel the need to hold on to things, but rather I can live with an open heart and an open hand and say, God, use this to bless others and to spread your love, right? This is why God gives good gifts to His children, ultimately to reflect His generosity that He has toward us, right? Generosity flows from the right perspective of it's not mine, but it's God's, and I'm going to use it for His sake. For His purposes, for His kingdom, for His glory, but it also flows from what God has done for us, which is most clearly portrayed on Christ on the cross. Christ crucified for you." [00:08:46] (65 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "The King of heaven became poor so that we, the lost, the spiritually broken, the ones who are unable to do things for ourselves, the helpless and the hopeless, might come to know and experience the amazing, the priceless gift of God's grace that ultimately changes everything. It was on the cross that He gave up everything so that we might gain everything. Forgiveness, a life with Christ, a relationship that we would experience the hope of eternity with Him, and that there would not be a day that would go by in which we would be separated from Him." [00:11:05] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And what we see here is that Jesus doesn't just provide the basic needs. He doesn't just get them by, but he creates this abundance of more than enough. And as the master of ceremonies tries the wine, it's not only just wine, it's the best wine that he has tasted. And so Jesus takes this moment in the situation of lack and scarcity, and he creates an abundance, and he provides something better than anyone could have imagined." [00:14:30] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "And what we can learn from this passage, three things about faith and this heart of generosity. And ultimately, it's the first, the first one is this, that we can trust in God's abundant provision, right? Scripture is full of account after account of God providing for His people. You've got the Israelites in the Old Testament in which God provided manna every single day. He fed them. Then you've got the story of the widow and the oil and the jars of oil that just never stopped until the jars stopped coming." [00:15:30] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "And then finally, that ultimately it's this concept of there's a blessing in giving. And it's not that we give to be blessed or that we give to get, but there's something interesting about God's economy. And that when we give, uh, God continues to provide and show up in ways that we didn't necessarily see coming. And sometimes it's, it's, he repays, but sometimes the blessing comes in other ways. And we have time after time in which we have seen God show up in our lives from a faithful act of generosity, right? Because God's economy is backwards. And I can tell you that there have been countless times in our lives where we've seen God show up in our lives from a faithful act of generosity. Whether it's personally, whether it's my family and which we've given, uh, even though we didn't necessarily have enough, whether it was our time, our resources, our money, and then God shows up and meets." [00:17:42] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "Because when we live in this place of, God, I'm going to bless others with what you've blessed me, we get to, we open up this space for God to show up more and more. We get to know him more deeply and more fully and ultimately become more dependent on him, who is the one who provides for us. Each and every day." [00:19:17] (24 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)