The Heart Of Generosity – Part 2

Review

• Giving God’s way is not by human effort alone. It requires grace.
• You need grace to do the things that God asks you to do.
• You often won’t realize grace is present until grace is absent.
• Adversity and poverty are not reasons to opt out of opportunities to give.
• Giving is not just for the rich, but for all people who recognize how generous God has been to them.

Motivation is the Key

2 Corinthians 8:5 (NIV) – ⁵ And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

• When you give yourself to the Lord, you give yourself to God’s vision for your life.
• Luke 14:26–33 (ESV) – ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  ³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

   

  • Free will giving is about freely deferring to what God puts on your heart to give.
    • Submission is voluntary. Compliance is coerced.
    • Luke 18:18–23 (ESV) – ¹⁸ And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁹ And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” ²¹ And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” ²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ²³ But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
      • What God really wants is your heart, not your money. He just knows they’re connected Matthew 6:21 (ESV) – ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
      • Psalm 51:16–17 (ESV) – ¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

  • Giving is about action and attitude.

Make Generosity a Priority

2 Corinthians 8:6-7 (NIV) – ⁶ So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. ⁷ But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

• • Giving must be a practice and not just something you do when you are inspired.
    • Just like prayer, Bible reading, worship and fellowship, giving is a spiritual discipline. 

© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2023